Anxiety is Normal, but Don’t Stop Believing in Yourself

So many college students get hit with the anxiety of not being good enough. Whether they’re an athlete or a student who only goes to class, we’re constantly having those second thoughts on if we did something good enough or if we should just start over and do it again.

Student-athletes are always feeling pressured. Some may feel as if they’ll never be as good as the others and they will never get the playing time they want/deserve and some may also have the thoughts that they’re never going to be as good as the coach needs them to be, so they might as well quit … which quitting is usually never the answer unless you really feel like that’s the only option for you.

As for me, in high school, I was constantly being compared to my sister in almost every sport I did. My sister was athletic (as she’s a former Hutchinson Community College track All-American) and so it was very hard for myself to try to keep up with her and her abilities. Coaches were always saying, “Well Kaylee does this, Kaylee does that … why can’t you be like Kaylee?”

So I always felt as if I wasn’t good enough to be able to be in the same things as her. Little side note – that’s why I fell in love with cheerleaders and writing because it was something I always got complimented on and the two things that my sisters didn’t do. I stopped playing one of the sports after my sister graduated just because I felt like I didn’t have any reason to keep doing it since I wasn’t ever going to be “good enough.” As to why I said “quitting is usually never the answer” because I regret quitting basketball so much because I lost all that quality time with my friends in a sport I actually did love.

In eighth grade, I had a volleyball coach yell at me all because I asked if I could try hitting once. As a setter, obviously all I did was set for everyone who was hitting. But I knew I was strong and I wanted to hit a couple times, but my coach ripped into me all because I asked if I could simply try it. After she said no, she then took my spot off of varsity and gave me zero playing time for the rest of the season. She claimed that I made her lose all confidence in me after I gave her attitude, but I literally just asked her if I could try something new. I felt as if I wasn’t good enough to continue playing and I then went out for cross country the next year instead of trying volleyball.

Full-time students can get anxiety just by having to write an essay or having to take a test that they didn’t study for. I still get anxiety for the tests I did study for. I just now got comfortable asking questions and talking to all of my professors when I had issues. I’ve always been able to talk to most of my professors, but there’s some classes where I didn’t want to say anything or speak up if I had the answer just because I was afraid of being wrong.

Anxiety is totally normal and happens to almost everyone at least once in their lives. You just have to find a way to not let it control you and your life. You have to believe in yourself and know that you are good enough in whatever you put your mind to. But you can’t always just believe that you are and think you’re automatically going to be where you want to be. You need to put in the work and show who you want to prove that you are good enough and you do deserve good things.

Tatum James is a Jetmore freshman studying psychology. Email her at thehutchinsoncollegian@gmail.com.

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