We all strive to maintain our composure when catastrophe hits. Particularly, for students with a busy schedule full of responsibilities and studies, grief may be a tremendous mental and emotional load. The causes of grief are numerous. It can be due to the death of a loved one, health problems, losing a dream, a job, a friendship, a romantic relationship, or a beloved pet.

For students, the grief can be mostly because of pressure from the people around them, grades, expectations, or their future. Although occasionally, obligations and classes themselves might be the cause of misery. Grief has a negative effect on students, as stated by the John Hopkins Student Assistance Program. Grief impacts academics because grieving takes precedence over other things. It might have a poor effect on focus and, consequently, academic performance. An alternative strategy used by someone experiencing grief is to focus excessively on their academics.

According to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, there are five stages of grief, namely - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The University of Notre Dame stated that if students receive a failing grade, they experience the first stage in the Five Stages of Grief, which is denial, characterized by shock and numbness to the failure. The student might not think it is possible for them to experience this. Here, the student will start to ponder things like, “Maybe I overlooked a question,” or “Maybe my professor meant to record my grade as 84, not 48.”

The anger stage comes next after the denial. Here, a student might think that their professor does not like them, or they might be mad at themselves because they did not review hard enough. The third stage, bargaining, entails persistently considering ways to make up for the loss. Students might attempt to meet with professors to bargain for points back, say they marked the correct response on the exam but not on the answer sheet, point out ambiguities in the questions, or politely express their strong belief that the exam was unfair and should not be used as a gauge of their comprehension of the material. These discussions are normal steps in grieving, even if they are frequently unsuccessful.

The fourth stage is depression. An extreme sense of hopelessness and a withdrawal from ordinarily joyful activities characterize this stage. In your life, this can resemble skipping class to sit in bed and think about your grim future. The final stage of grief is acceptance. Here, we make the decision to move forward in whatever way is necessary. A student may pledge to study more diligently for the upcoming exam in order to accept and get over their exam anguish.

The CEIS student body often experiences such grief, yet they always continue to progress and strive for academic excellence. A survey was conducted among the students to get an insight into their academic experiences so far.

Most respondents shared a mutual observation of the adjustment period that occurred due to the transition from fully online to hybrid classes. They stated that everyone must have had some difficulty in adapting to this now normal. Nevertheless, the respondents expressed feelings of enthusiasm for the new set up, although being relatively anxious about how things were unfolding. Interestingly though, most respondents also mentioned at least one subject with which they are having trouble. Subjects that they claim to be “nasa acceptance stage na ko.”

When the respondents were asked if they were experiencing any form of academic grief, only half responded as positively. Some mentioned that they are prone to having burn-outs, especially in this mode of learning, that even if we already have face-to-face classes, the sheer exhaustion caused by at-home activities brought them to their knees. However, one thing was recurring among all respondents, whether they claimed to experience academic grief or not. They do not have a habit of over-pondering about their grades to an unhealthy extent; they focus more on current events and not too much on what the future may hold. It seems likely that students have developed a mechanism that allows them to move on very quickly even with all the ups, downs, and uncertainties that are faced in the academe.

The CEIS students never fail to deliver even in circumstances that they find stressful and are capable of well managing the brief moments of grief that they experience throughout their academic endeavors. Their input acts as a testament to their innate determination and unbending nature.

As all things come to rest, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, AND CARRY ON, ESCOLARIANS!