We are almost at the end of the Spring 2023 semester. As this is my third year at Eastern, it almost feels surreal.

It is crazy for me to think about how much I have accomplished and how much I have gotten done since starting out as a freshman. As a tour guide, I get a lot of students asking me about student life and what my classes are like.

I tell them my honest opinions in the kindest way possible, but there are things that I cannot inform them of. I do not think people truly talk about the impact that being on college can have on your mental health.

Even in high school, we never really touched on that subject when talking about college. It was almost like a shock to me when I started falling into an unrecognized sadness my freshman year. It was the year of the pandemic, I almost felt rushed into college, like I never truly got to finish my high school career and college came out of the blue.

Life was very gray for the last few months of my first semester here. I will also admit that I started to slip academically. I feel like this happens to a lot of first year students as well, just from conversations that I had with first year students when I was a sophomore and now that I am a junior.

Resources are plentiful and Eastern makes it a point of interest to encourage students to reach out when they feel that they are in need of help. But is it truly enough?

I understand that physical counseling services are limited and first come first serve, but is there a way that counseling services can be rotated to accomplish multiple students?

I know that student leaders on campus are also trained for certain interventions like these, but there is only so much that they can do to help another struggling student. Two students in the same predicament would not be able to properly provide the help that both students would need mentally.

At this point in time, though, I think that it helps to be there for your friends who may not be having the best time as of currently. Everyone’s head is in a different space, and everyone’s mental state varies as well.

The final stretch is almost here, so try to find at least one thing to keep yourself going in this final half of the semester. 

Kyla Moton is a junior English/creative writing major. She can be reached at klmoton@eiu.edu or 217-581-2812.