defeated. You feel low and unhappy. When you try to think of a solution, or of a way out,

you go blank. You're stressed. The American Institute of Stress defines stress as physical,

mental, or emotional strain or tension. I'm very interested in the topic of stress management

because as a college student I'm faced with all different kinds of stress. After reading

articles on the topic I would like to inform all of you of a few reasons for stress and

then some tips to help you manage your stress and make college life more enjoyable. First,

I'll talk about some of the reasons for stress. Although I'm sure that there are many everyone

here probably has their own reasons, I'm going to stick to three main reasons that you can

probably relate to. The first one is the amount of schoolwork. College can be so demanding

due to such a heavy workload that we're expected to keep up with. It's so easy to get overwhelmed.

We have projects, tests, papers, exams, midterms, finals, co-ops. Stress can easily build without

a good strategy of tackling these assignments. A second reason is pressure to do well. Pressure

to do well can come from within. That's the inner drive, that inner motivation pushing

you to succeed. Most here desire to do their best and to get good grades. The Methods of

Healing website conducted research and found that 71 percent of college students say that

their grades have a direct effect on their level of stress. Pressure to do well can also

be external. That's your family, your friends, your coaches, your teachers, your professors.

Everybody who wants to see you succeed. Wanting to live up to the high expectations that they

place on you can be pretty stressful. A third reason is change in environment. Now this

may affect some of us more than others, depending on if you're from Rochester or not, but going

away to college means leaving behind everything that's familiar. Your close family, they're

not with you. Your friends, they're not with you. Some students have never been away from

home which can be a difficult adjustment. Then, once you're here at RIT there's social

acceptance, peer pressure--these are issues we may face since we're in a new environment.

Wanting to fit in can be a challenge and often is. Now, let's recap the three reasons we

talked about. First was the amount of schoolwork, second was pressure to succeed, and third

was dealing with a new environment. Now that we know the three reasons, let's examine some

tips to help reduce the stress. There are five simple things we can do to manage our

stress. I created an acronym to help me remember the tips. The word I'm using is relax: R-E-L-A-X.

We'll go over each letter one by one. The first letter, letter R, stands for Recognize.

We have to recognize the source of our stress before we can address it. Once you realize

why you're stressed, why not keep a journal? Write down everything that you feel. Writing

makes you feel more relieved and allows you to pinpoint any trends in your stress. The

second letter, letter E, stands for Exercise. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine

takes your mind off of problems you may have, and not to mention, it's good for your body.

So create a routine. Set aside time for exercise. Set aside time for classes--for studying,

for homework, and then schedule in downtime for yourself. In the end you'll feel less

overwhelmed. The third letter, L, L stands for Let it go. Think about the stressful situation.

Will it matter in five years? Will it matter in ten years? If it will matter, take a deep

breath and address the stressful situation piece by piece and step by step. If it won't

matter in five years or ten years then let it go. Stressing over small things is tiring

and unnecessary. The fourth letter, letter A stands for Attitude. When you talk about

school do you say things like, "Ugh, I'm gonna fail," or "That test was so hard I bombed

it, I'm never gonna learn this material." If you do that may sound pessimistic and doubtful.

You can self-reflect and adjust your attitude. According to a 2005 Stress Management article,

being optimistic and having a positive outlook has a direct connection with how we feel,

even with how well we perform. Now the last letter is X. You're probably wondering what

word I came up with to start with this, so I cheated a little bit and it stands for eXtra

sleep. All students need sleep for energy. Are you not getting enough? Go to the letter

R--recognize why am I not getting enough sleep? Maybe it's because you're hanging out with

your friends until two, three, four in the morning. Why not cut down that time? You can

still hang out with them, just not as long. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep because

you have too much homework. You pull an all-nighter, cramming for an exam, up till 5AM. Why not

make a better schedule? And then stick to that schedule. Don't procrastinate. When you

map out your time and you stick to a routine you'll realize that you have enough time to

get everything done, even sleep. In the end we'll be less frustrated when we get the sleep

we needed. Another interesting point that I found is that all stress is not bad. Distress

is bad stress. That's what we've been focusing on in this speech. But then there's also good

stress, that's called eustress. Eustress comes from excitement or adrenaline. But, to focus

on managing our negative stress let's try to remember all of the tips and the word relax.

R, recognize where the stress is coming from and address it. E, exercise daily. L, let

go of minor problems, don't worry about it. And A, adjust your attitude and be more positive.

And X, get eXtra sleep. In conclusion, we cannot ignore the fact that stress occurs

in our lives. Regardless of the reasons we have to manage it one way or another. Above

all, from my speech I hope you take away useful tips to deal with your stress so that college

is more enjoyable. Even if you can't remember what each letter stands for, do just what

the word says, and relax.