There’s a thought that has been bothering me for a while now that I believe needs to be addressed: Simpson students are not normal college students.

To clarify that sentence, this isn’t an editorial piece saying that Simpson students are weirder or different than other college students. When I say “not normal,” I mean that whatever is on the plate of college students at bigger colleges or universities, the amount is doubled for Simpson students.

It’s my third year here at Simpson, and I’ve watched this happen multiple times to many different people and even experienced it myself enough times that I finally felt compelled to write about it. 

Imagine the situation: you’re involved in multiple groups, clubs, and organizations on campus. You love all of the activities you’re in, and you love contributing to all of them. And hey, it can look good on a resume. The only issue arising is two events are happening on the same day, at the same time. 

This scenario has happened before, and you know it’ll happen again. It makes you think: which group is more important? Which one has more consequences for missing? Whether it’s Greek life, SGA, BSU, sustainability club, CAB, a sport, band, or any other of the numerous activities on campus, there are almost always two things intersecting. This is stressful for students at Simpson, but somehow we still maintain all of these activities on top of school work. 

Any student who’s in more than one group will agree going to a college with less than 2,000 students can be costly when it comes to sociability.

Having to be in two places at once can start to affect one’s mental health when it becomes a regular occurrence. Add on top of that, needing to keep up with regular school work and classes – it’s a perfect recipe for an overworked student. According to Simpson’s website, 84% of Simpson students participate in an on-campus activity. There’s one word for a percentage that high of on-campus student involvement: “overachievers.” 

Most students at bigger schools have a few niche organizations they are involved in, and they stick to those because more than that would be almost impossible on top of school work, but Simpson students can’t do that because we’re just too small of a student body. And while I applaud all of my academic peers for being such go-getters and being so involved on campus, take this as an advisory message: take the time to take care of yourself and learn to say no.

I know that it can be hard to say no when the highflyer inside of you wants to be involved in everything, but stop and take a mental check the next time someone asks for your participation in something. Ask yourself how many events have you already agreed to be at this week? Will you be losing time on homework or self-care if you agree to this? 

Schedule out time for yourself just like any other task. Just because you have the time doesn’t mean you should always fill it. Sometimes an hour spent doing nothing is the most productive thing you can do for yourself.