It was the middle of my second year, and I felt like I was drowning. Deadlines were piling up, my grades were slipping, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep up. I convinced myself that I wasn’t cut out for this. Maybe I wasn’t smart enough. Maybe college just wasn’t for me.
For the first time in my life, I Googled: “How to drop out of university.”
I stopped attending classes regularly, avoided messages from group projects, and isolated myself from friends. My sleep schedule was a mess. My eating habits? Even worse. And every time someone asked me, “How’s college going?” I wanted to disappear.
One night, while scrolling through my phone, I came across an old photo of myself from my first semester. I looked happy, excited, hopeful, like I actually wanted to be there. I barely recognized myself.
That’s when it hit me: I didn’t hate college. I hated the pressure, the exhaustion, the constant feeling of never being good enough.
I knew I needed to make a change, but I had no idea where to start. I started small:
✔ I reached out to a professor I trusted—I told them I was struggling. Instead of judging me, they gave me realistic advice on managing my workload.
✔ I opened up to my friends, turns out, I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. We decided to hold each other accountable.
✔ I stopped aiming for “perfect”, because perfect was the reason I was drowning in the first place.
Slowly, things started getting better. I took breaks without feeling guilty. I learned to say no to extra commitments. I started asking for help when I needed it. And most importantly, I realized that struggling didn’t mean I had to quit—it just meant I needed to adjust.
If you’ve ever felt like dropping out, I see you. You’re not lazy. You’re not a failure. And you’re definitely not alone.
Maybe you just need a reset, a new approach, or even just a reminder that you are capable of making it through this. College is tough, but so are you.