It seems that stress is a constant at college. It’s in the classrooms, it’s on the basketball court, it’s in every office on campus, and it is something that plagues everyone in existence.

That said, amidst the studying and partying, what options are available to get rid of some of all the pent up stress? Don’t worry. There are a couple of ways to kill that stress before it kills you.

The first way, my favorite, is to beat the heck out of something. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m telling you the wall is a good target, or that you get to beat up some hapless, unlucky individual on my say so. It means that the best thing to take your anger out on is something that can take it and not get you in trouble, say a pillow or a couch cushion for example. If you have the opportunity, then my recommendation is to find a punching bag, perhaps one at a local gym. Note: if you do choose the punching bag, punching correctly may save you from a very nasty visit to the doctor to deal with a broken wrist or knuckles. Gloves may be a good investment too if the gym doesn’t supply them.

Number two is the college way: to go and party hard. Celebrate the night with a party accented with the gospel overtones of Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Jason DeRulo, Usher, and/or every other artist that releases beastly new pop music for the masses. Assuming that’s your choice, notice that getting drunk to the point of blacking out may not be the best idea. It can lead to a number of not so great outcomes (for reference, see the Writing on the Stalls). On the lighter side, while drunk, you may forget what made you so stressed out to begin with – though the hangover won’t be worth the few minutes of oblivion.

Note the irony of these two choices. If you happen to be a violent drunk, you may beat up that hapless, unlucky individual.

The easiest, and least costly, way to deal with stress is to just sit back and breathe, even if its only a few deep breathes for a few seconds. Close your eyes, and think about something that has no other purpose than to relax you, an island beach or something. You may find out that things are nowhere near as bad as you thought, and that there is an easy way out, perhaps even just a full night of sleep.  On that, good luck and hopefully good riddance to at least some of the stress hounding your everyday life.