Students say the most important factor to overcoming obstacles financially, emotionally and mentally, is having resilience.
Resilience in personal and academic lives
Having resilience in your academic and personal life is key to building a strong foundation in your mental health. Being resilient helps you focus more on yourself than on problems you cannot control.
Hailey Nailor, academic adviser for general education and student success, said, “I think resilience is important for anyone because you have to figure out how to go forward, but specifically for college students because college is designed to push you to your limits.”
Expectations in resilience
To be resilient is to build yourself up after being knocked down. Many people wonder how this is possible with financial and family problems. There is such a high expectancy for students to show resilience, but there are many of them who find it challenging.
Peer coach Cambrie Richardson, a sophomore elementary education major from St. George, said: “I think the expectation to be resilient comes from yourself most times. We have this expectation to always be resilient for others when we really should be doing it for ourselves.”
Becoming resilient is a slow and rewarding process. There is more to learn about yourself as a person when you have the confidence. This is most important when investing in yourself and your academic success and future.
Matt Smith-Lahrman, professor of sociology, said: “Half the battle is just not giving up. You have to have faith that being a student and getting a bachelor’s degree is going to pay off in the end.”
Motivation
Without confidence and faith, there could be consequences in your future personally and academically. Most times, when students feel failure, they lose that sense of confidence to keep making progress.
Nailor said, “Theres always gonna be barriers so you have to find a way to first motivate yourself but you also have to have the will to figure out what to do.”
Effects of COVID-19
In today’s day and age, COVID-19 has made being resilient astronomically harder. Professors and support staff have seen a decline in mental health as well going through quarantine and coming back to trying times.
Smith-Lahrman said, “We see more students with anxiety and more emails from students saying, ‘I can’t get out of bed today.’”
This stops the road to resilience and the healing process seems harder.
Nailor said: “Gen Z wants more to be face-to-face and have human connection with people and that has increased even more with COVID-19 and quarantine. It has changed how students yearn for that person to person contact.”
Outcomes
On the other hand, there are students who have taken this opportunity to change for the better. It has helped them grow and look forward to the changes they will see in the future.
Becoming resilient isn’t a process that happens over night. It takes time to adapt to being fully confident and reassured in your daily duties.
Richardson said, “Being resilient is developed over time because you can only gain it from experience and going through obstacles that come your way.”
