Explore our shared editorial library without leaving the Project Semicolon publication.
The people who get you through your first weeks of college do not automatically have to become your permanent people. Sometimes friendship changes because…
September 13, 2026
Your room is supposed to be where college stops for a minute. When the person sharing it makes the space tense, chaotic or emotionally…
September 13, 2026
College makes success very public and struggle strangely private. It can look like everybody else received instructions you somehow missed. They did not.
September 13, 2026
College can be meaningful without being magical. You are allowed to have lonely semesters, change direction, make ordinary memories and still have a life…
September 13, 2026
First-generation students may be learning college while also translating it for themselves and their families. The pressure is often structural, not evidence that they…
September 13, 2026
Not everyone finds a perfect friend group, club or dorm family. Belonging can be built through smaller, repeated connections that do not require becoming…
September 13, 2026
A healthier drinking culture is not one where everyone suddenly makes the same choice about alcohol. It is one where safety, consent and belonging…
September 13, 2026
Posters, panels and green ribbons can start conversations. A campus mental health strategy has to change what students can actually reach, expect and experience…
September 13, 2026
Mental health culture is shaped in club meetings, team chats, rehearsals, labs and student organizations long before someone reaches a counseling office.
September 13, 2026
Some students become the unofficial therapist of the group because they listen well and rarely ask for anything. Being dependable should not require becoming…
September 13, 2026
When a friend comes home or back to campus after a mental health hospitalization, you do not need the perfect speech. You need steadiness,…
September 13, 2026
It is hard to concentrate on a lecture when part of your brain is calculating whether the groceries need to last until Friday. Food…
September 13, 2026
The college gym can be a place to feel stronger, clear your head and build routine. It can also become another room where you…
September 13, 2026
College wellness culture can make harmful eating and exercise patterns look disciplined, clean or aspirational. Eating disorders do not have one body type, and…
September 13, 2026
The all-nighter is treated like a weird academic rite of passage. Your brain, unfortunately, did not sign the tradition agreement. Sleep loss can hit…
September 13, 2026
Finals culture treats sleep like an optional luxury you can borrow against. Your brain is less impressed by the tradition. Protecting sleep is not…
September 13, 2026
The morning after drinking can bring physical symptoms, missing pieces of memory and a brutal replay of everything you might have said or done.…
September 13, 2026
Cannabis can be social, recreational or something a student reaches for when sleep, anxiety or stress gets loud. The useful question is not whether…
September 13, 2026
Vaping can feel like stress relief while nicotine dependence quietly creates more stress to relieve. Understanding the loop makes it easier to stop treating…
September 13, 2026
“Everyone drinks” can make consequences easy to explain away. The useful question is not whether your friends drink too; it is whether alcohol is…
September 13, 2026
College drinking culture can make alcohol feel less like a choice and more like an entrance fee. You are allowed to notice when keeping…
September 13, 2026
Moving away does not automatically make family expectations quieter. Sometimes they get louder through phone calls, grades, money, career plans and the invisible weight…
September 13, 2026
College can put thousands of people within walking distance and still leave someone wondering who they could call if they were having a genuinely…
September 13, 2026
Graduation is supposed to be a finish line. It can also be the end of routines, relationships, identities and a version of life you…
September 13, 2026
