Mideay Unscripted

  I’m going to be honest, I’ve been feeling a little bit down lately. But as a Criminology student in my final year, I’ve started looking at my own stress through a different lens. In my classes, we study why people do what they do. We talk about distorted thinking, those moments when your brain starts telling you lies, like "you aren't good enough" or "you’ll never make it." In Criminology, we learn how thoughts shape behavior and, sometimes, how negative thinking can push people toward dangerous choices. But here’s what they don't always tell you in the textbooks: Stress is a thief. When we are pushed to the limit in university, our thinking gets distorted too. We start to feel like our whole identity is just a grade or a project. We feel "strained." There’s actually a famous theory in Criminology called Strain Theory. It basically  explains how pressure to succeed without adequate support can lead to deep frustration and stress. As a final year ...

  I’m in the final month of my final year in university, and I can confidently say, "stress is real".  It’s not just exams or final projects. It’s that heavy “what’s next?” feeling that follows you everywhere. The kind that sits quietly in your chest even when you’re trying to relax. Most days, it feels like my brain has 50 tabs open, and they’re all frozen. I didn’t discover crochet in some aesthetic, life-changing moment. I found it out of pure boredom. I had a bit of interest, some yarn, and a desperate need to stop thinking about my to-do list for five minutes. My first stitch? A total mess. My tenth stitch? Still a mess. And honestly, that annoyed me at first. I’m used to understanding things quickly. I’m used to getting results. But somewhere between the frustration of holding the hook correctly and untangling loops of yarn, I noticed something strange: I wasn’t thinking about school. For the first time in months, my brain wasn’t calculating my CGPA. It wasn’t re...