Category: Columns

Are you the kind of student with an eight page paper, forty pages of reading, and two sets of calculus problems due by Monday? Let’s not forget about that exam in your Intro to Psychology class on Tuesday, that you haven’t even thought about studying for. On top of all of that schoolwork, you got invited by a few of your friends to go to Letchworth this weekend and that cute student you met at freshmen orientation weekend is going to be there; you can’t miss out on that opportunity! There’s also church on Sunday and choir rehearsal Saturday night. It looks like quite the busy weekend and you only have so much time. How do you plan to juggle all of this?

College is stressful. It is hard to juggle our academic lives, work, our social lives, and our spiritual lives. Depression and anxiety have been on the rise on campuses across the nation since 2009, according to a study recently performed by  Cindy Liu, PhD, a psychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and her colleagues. Schoolwork can seem endless, but you don’t want to spend your entire weekend stuck in your dorm room pulling your hair out over some calculus problems. How do you manage your time and alleviate some of this stress?

One of the biggest problems that many students face is that they don’t accurately give themselves enough time to perform a task. In social psychology this is referred to as the “planning fallacy”. This is the tendency to optimistically give yourself too little time to complete a task, not realizing your own role in your failure to complete it. How many times have you told yourself that it would only take two hours to complete an assignment and then that assignment took 3 hours to finish?

Instead of realizing that we didn’t give ourselves enough time, we blame it on the distractions that we didn’t account for, or that we’re tired or hungry. Sometimes this inability to complete an assignment on time can make us angry, we blame the professor. “He is expecting too much from his students!” We extrinsically evaluate the situation, rather than putting the blame where it really belongs: on ourselves. How do we remedy this situation?

An article by Heidi Halvorson outlined a few ways to prevent the planning fallacy. The first is to be aware of our own role in how long it takes for us to complete a task. This awareness allows us to consciously plan extra time. Secondly, it helps to remember how long it took to complete tasks similar to the one at hand. We should also plan for distractions, and in doing so take steps to help prevent those. You will probably face more distractions if you are doing work where you are closer to the general public, than if you were working in a study room. Lastly, we should take into account what could go wrong while we are working. While this can often be difficult to assess, even giving yourself a small amount of extra time can be extremely helpful.

Stress is common for everyone, and there are many ways to remedy it. Sometimes it just takes a different perspective to properly act on our stress. By taking these steps, we can prevent some of the stress associated with college, more accurately balance our time between school and friends, and feel better about ourselves and our ability to complete our work.

“Catholics on Campus”, along with St. Patrick’s Campus Ministry, sponsored Coffee & Catholicism in Java. A number of Houghton students gathered, coffee cups in hand, to listen to Houghton College Registrar Keven Kettinger and Deacon Paul Ward of the Dioceses of Steubenville discuss Catholicism. It was an insightful evening as Deacon Paul Ward answered a number of both Kettingers and students questions, such as,
what are the Catholics Church’s teachings regarding faith and works? Why is Mary, Mother of
Jesus, so significant in Catholicism? Deacon Paul Ward also answered questions surrounding
the Eucharist and the tradition it holds within the church, as well as the importance of tradition
itself within Catholicism.

Attending this event I myself had a number of questions answered that have been swimming
around in my head since studying abroad last semester with the Houghton in Tanzania
program. In this program I learned and experienced countless amazing things, diversity in
religion was one of them. Every Sunday we would go to a different Christian Church, sometimes
hiking 45 minutes to a rural church with twenty members, where the majority of the service was
singing and dancing, and others driving to the city of Iringa to attend Mshindo Catholic Church.
There was a wealth of religious diversity in Tanzania, from various Christian denominations, to
Indigenous Religions, to Middle Eastern Religions such as Islam. That semester was my real
first exposure to the diversity within Christian denominations and religion, it was a fascinating
experience that left me wanting to learn more.

Here at Houghton College, though we are affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, there is a
diversity of denomination and religion among the students, and I hope to give those students a
platform to speak with the Religious Diversity in Houghton column. This includes every
denomination of within Christianity, as well as non denominational, and every Religion, or lack
thereof, within Houghton College.

The Religious Diversity in Houghton column hopes to explore this wealth of diversity on
campus and give students a chance to express their beliefs.This column isn’t meant to change
anyone’s faith or be an argument over who got it right, but to get a conversation started, and
give students a chance to share their faith, their beliefs and their passions regarding religion.

In chapel last Wednesday Dean Jordan challenged us to work hard, not just with our hands, but
with our minds as well. Expressing what you believe or even listening to a belief different then
your own can be hard work, but it could add both to individual knowledge and the knowledge of
the campus.

Throughout the semester there will be a series of articles that will present a different student
and their religious views on Houghton Campus. If anyone is interested, has any questions or is
would like to be featured please contact the Houghton Star.