Reinterpretation: Learning How to Survive College Life - Essay Example

A X Test Essay 6 April 2006 Reinterpretation: Learning How to Survive College Life Humans when faced with stressful and difficultsituations would try to cope as much as possible. One method of dealing with stress and problems in our lives is the use of reinterpretation. Reinterpretation is rethinking and giving new meaning to the negative experiences that we are going through. We do this to survive; we do it to excel or simply to keep our sanity. Reinterpretation is giving a whole different meaning to what we are feeling and sensing in the present to lessen stress.

As young adults there is no other places as stressful as college. When somebody mentions college, immediately thoughts of leaving home, living away from Mom and Dad comes to mind. To the fortunate few this stage can be easy but for the rest of us this can be a dreadful experience that we will never forget. Thus we need a creative way dealing with it. We need to have a new way of looking at some undesirable experiences at this point in our lives. Let us think then of the many challenges that a typical college student will face.

We can enumerate them by phases. The first one is the leaving home phase. The stress of leaving friends and loved ones behind must need a rethinking of some sort. Instead of seeing it as a loss, one can look at it as a period of great adventure. The second phase is the adjustment phase as one begins to adjust to the new surroundings, new sets of friends, neighbors or perhaps room-mates. To those sharing rooms in the dormitory there needs to be a whole lot of rethinking. The third and last phase (hopefully) is the adjustment to added workload.

By workload we mean more than the heavier than usual academic load as compared to what we are used to getting at High School. College professors as compared to high school teachers have more exacting standards. To them, young green-horn freshmen need not be spoon fed but should be trained to learn with greater independence. By added workload we also mean the need to get a job to support ourselves through college. Unless we are children of multi-millionaire parents, we need to find work. Just by looking at the increased stress levels can give us an idea how tough it is for young men and women to get a grip of this new life.

Rethinking offers that much needed help as we see things not in the superficial but on a deeper level. For example, we do not see ourselves as pitiful slaves working at that Burger joint but as independent, mature young adults rising up to the challenge of getting funding for the next semester's tuition fees. With regards to the crisis that we face, during the first few weeks of being removed from a usual place of comfort and security to a new place of insecurity, we are forced to reinterpret.

We look again at the negative experience to give a new meaning and rather than be knocked down by depression and self-doubt, we rather say that this is an opportunity for growth and self-mastery. What is at stake here Well, first of all we will never be able to finish college if we let all these painful and depressing thoughts affect us. We will never be able to change and grow as a person. We need to realize that when we begin to make a reinterpretation of the not so happy times in college and the various setbacks and unexpected consequences of actions, it is also the moment when we begin to really mature.

So, let us always bear in mind that we have it in ourselves to change the situation, it may not be physically changing the circumstances but at least in our perceptions. It is only by looking at our problems differently, as we reinterpret the situation that we will be able to survive and succeed in college.Works CitedBrissette, Ian, Charles S. Carver, and Michael F. Scheier. "The Role of Optimism in the Social Network Development, Coping, and Psychological Adjustment During a Life Transition.

" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82.1 (2002): 102-111.