Statistics that should scare you.

Hopeless 51%
Overwhelmed 87%
Exhausted 82%
Lonely 61.7%
Very Sad 65.6%
Depressed 34.4%
Anxiety 52.1%
Anger 40.7%
Stress 57.1%
Consider Suicide 6.8 %
Attempt suicide 1.7%

As per 2011 poll by National College Health Assessment of 1600 students at random Sampling

In post secondary at any given day you can hear about one person having a breakdown in class, walk down a hallway see someone crying or walk through the library and watch someone scribble notes and rip them up. I am about 2 steps away from being the person to breakdown in class.

Post-secondary is never what I thought it would be. You go, get an education and learn what you need to to get that well paying job. Society has a funny way of dictating what you should do. How you should do it and why you should do it. In actuality, it is hearing stories of people who drink for 'fun', professors who don't really give a shit (as long as they earn their cheque) and severe anxiety and social problems that will feast on your mind whilst you are there.  In my experience, of course.

By the looks of it that is a common theme, remember taken from 1600 students, U of A has about a 70x more than that. People are going to school now to show up more than anything. People who train their mind to remember everything out of sheer memorization like a Rat going through a maze. How much does a person actually take away from that? I have tried that, I have taken away a few interesting facts, but after the semester is done I pretty much forget anything that happened in that class. It is never how much you know, or how much you can apply to a real life situation. It is how well can you stare at notes or repeatedly write them before you are forced to learn it. Seems like a fun day to me. Which is what modern day post secondary is.
 Least enjoyable 2 years of my life so far.

I did not enjoy my time at school, Elementary to high school. I thought post-secondary could revoke those feelings. I certainly feel no better about it. People tell me you gotta go to school and get your education to get your job, support your family, have good credit, and live a comfortable life.  Credit: is money that you do not have. Your success in life is money you do not have.

I wanted post-secondary to be something else for me. It has caused a multitude of health problems, and those health problems are becoming the main focus. It has caused more anger to fill my soul than any one thing that has ever happened to me. It has caused my time on Earth to become less enjoyable. It turns your brain into a mouse on a wheel waiting for something to go wrong.

I have experienced all but attempted suicide from that list. In any given week in fact.

Someone seriously needs to look at these issues faced in students in post-secondary and try to work something out where that much emotion is not evoked. We will lose bright minds, and good people to the outside pressures.

Walk around a post-secondary institution, feel how uncomfortable it is, how uncomfortable the people look and how programmed it all becomes. It is heartbreaking.

I'm trying to enjoy myself, it is just not in the realm of possibilities at this moment.

Regards,
Devon