By Alexander Murphy
Sleep, study or socialize? You have all heard of the college tripartite triangle. You choose two things to focus on, to sleep and study for example, and let the third, in this case socializing, dwindle into a hole of isolation.
This is the tripartite axiom that most, if not all, college students grapple with. Of course, this is not exactly inclusive of those who have to work. Those who have to work have even bigger things on their plates.
Haven’t you noticed how much better your grades are when you seclude yourself in the library, like a hermit glued to an uncomfortable chair for hours on end?
Or how much worse your grades are when you party all the time and hang around friends who do nothing but gossip about how Stacey looked yesterday in that hideously patterned summer blouse? It’s not even summer, I know.
It is simply fact. You have to choose two and sacrifice the other. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can make changes to benefit your lifestyle and health. Instead of sleeping for three hours a night, maintaining superficial relationships and trying desperately to keep your head above water, make the necessary adjustments that will allow you to manage things with a healthy balance.
Ultimately, it depends what you want to accomplish with your time here at Cal Poly Pomona. If you want to make friends, socialize and party all the time, then by all means, go for it. No one is stopping you. The second thing you choose to focus on just might make your life unenjoyable, despite all the fun you are apparently having.
You might say, “College is the best years of your life, why not party and ‘Live it up’?” And yes, college is supposed to be the “best years of your life.” There is no other time in your future career for the things you will do now as a college student.
However, choosing the right things to focus on now will allow you to accomplish your goals. If those goals include graduate school to pursue medicine, law or business, you might want to stop partying until 3 a.m. five days a week.
On the other side of things, choosing to study and sleep and have absolutely no interaction isn’t the best way to go about the college life either. Burnout is very real, and it is your worst enemy.
Burnout or burnout syndrome is a joint physiological and psychological effect on the brain and body, due the overwhelming nature of stress and its harmful effects. According to the United States National Library of Medicine, burnout syndrome can result from being placed under “extreme pressure, to the point that they feel exhausted, empty” and unable to cope.”
Burnout syndrome has three critical symptoms: extreme exhaustion, feeling low and having reduced performance.
Because “burning out” is very real, it is important to find balance in the tripartite college axiom. Too much of anything can be severely detrimental to your health and well-being.
While I believe that studying and sleep combined with minimal socializing gets me the results I want, I do not believe it is for everyone. What has proven to be the best method thus far for me is finding people who are also pursuing the same things: we want the same grades and we want to succeed.
We all end up having fun in some form or another. It’s just a matter of having a sense of moderation and approaching life in a reasonable and balanced way.
Sungah Choi / The Poly Post
Tripartite Triangle
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