At Brandeis, there seems to be an unspoken rule: “If you’re not busy, you’re not doing enough.” Every conversation seems to begin with a schedule rundown of every club meeting that has to be attended, the endless amounts of essays, homework and midterms — probably due within the next 24 hours and, usually, those conversations end with an apology since it is hard to find time to hang out in the midst of the endless flow of work. 

Being from Germany, people at my high school always used to pretend that school was not a priority. Saying that you didn’t study at all and then getting the full score was what people strived for — showing that they were being chill about school and could still exceed all expectations. Here, I found the total opposite: people openly bragging about their workload and using it as a social currency, almost seeming to compete on who the busiest is. 

Of course, this mindset doesn’t appear out of nowhere. Many of us arrive at Brandeis already conditioned to have overflowing schedules. The habits we got used to in order to make our college applications stand out are taken into college life. A lot of students have internalized that their value is determined by their resume and nothing else. The pressure to perform, achieve and succeed without a pause becomes part of the personality. 

I know that Brandeis students genuinely spend a lot of their time on their work and are trying to involve themselves on campus in so many different, amazing ways, but sometimes, it seems as if talking about being overwhelmed becomes part of the performance. It is unsettling to see how people use busyness to not only judge themselves, but also other people around them. 

This drive to be busy obviously also has its consequences. It’s taking a toll on many of my peers’ mental health, since they feel as if saying no or taking a rest decreases their value as a student, instead taking on every possible task and class offered. 

I feel it’s important to mention that the performance of not caring about school was also affecting students’ mental health back in Germany — pretending to not care comes with its own kind of pressure. 

I’ve seen both extremes now, and neither of them leaves much room for honesty or rest. Somewhere between pretending to not care and pretending to thrive, the truth of how we’re actually doing gets lost.