People often refer to college as “the happiest four years of their lives”—but that cliché belies a more complex reality.
Seventy percent of college students reported struggling with their mental health in a March 2024 U.S. News/Generation Lab poll. Despite this staggering figure, only 37% of students said they had actually sought out mental health care, according to the same poll.
Comedian John Mulaney took a humorous approach to the frequently draining and confusing college years in his 2018 stand-up special, “Kid Gorgeous.”
“What is college? Stop going until we figure it out. Because I went to college, I have no idea what it was,” he joked. “I didn’t drink water the entire time. I lived on cigarettes and alcohol and Adderall. College was like a four-year game show called ‘Do My Friends Hate Me or Do I Just Need to Go to Sleep?’”
Read more at Quartz.
