Having to go to college for a degree and accomplishing your dreams through countless nights of no sleep and ramen noodles only to get an assignment done for the next day is already enough of what we all can call the struggle before the actual struggle.  But life can hit hard sometimes even when someone living on campus or off with their nose in the books.  You can be in class and something comes up in the family that just doesn’t work with your schedule but you have to put the homework down sometimes and get through it. Or a hobby of some sort that you can see as a backup plan if this whole education thing doesn’t work out. So how can we dive deeper into the mind of a normal student with a life that is hectic and busy all of the time? This leads to gravitate towards my fellow pears.

One of those fellow pears is a friend, a brother, teammate, and in this case a producer. Marquel Harris, a junior with a major of international business, co-captain of the Park University track team, current vice president of international business club, and the student athlete advisory committee. In a research study from the Lifestyles article 80 percent of college student’s stress out daily. 34 percent have felt depressed in the past three months. This stress branches from extracurricular, sports, friends, dating, and parental issues and pressure all being a factor. Also, 13 percent is diagnosed with a mental health condition. We have to take this into consideration with the schedules of our students.  Harris having all of this happening for him right now he still has to attend classes daily at Park. Does this take a toll on his performance in the classroom? Navigating through his week, every day he gets up and does his normal ritual of going to the gym on campus if it’s open and if not the open roads and the public gyms are always an option. The grind for him never stops. Following this workout, he proceeds to his hygiene and on to classes that run through the day 9-12 with executive meetings that follow right behind. Then actual intense focused practice with the Track and Field team afterwards he proceeds to extra abs, and weights.

The cafe, whatever food it provides, it could be on the one to ten scale, we may never know, but Harris usually makes due with the exception of the occasional ice cream cone and sunflower seeds. Usually after he digests the food his dreams takes him a step further traveling to the high school down the road for triple and long jump training deep into the pits of Parkville High School. After his day is essentially done but not yet complete. His passions have other routes that he takes very seriously, producing. Coming home after an everyday ritual with exercise, schooling, studying, recovering, and working he finally finds his peace with a goal in mind.  Making beats for video game companies, musicians, and rap artists. This in turn has the objective of having the current status of his major International Business just in case if it starts to fall through. But Harris sees that as a hobby.

“I learned that a man should have three hobbies, one to keep him in shape, one to make him money, and one to keep his creative outlet,” said Marquel Harris.

His every day schedule consist of this heavy set of tasks. Along with the personal trials and tribulations with family, friends, and mental stability throughout his college career. Do we need to monitor and hand out a grace pass to students every once in a while? At the end of the day a lot of students have a pressure more than j

ust the books and going to class. Marquell Harris has a very special future ahead.