BY:AYESHA RANA

Let’s be real: College is stressful. Between the fluorescent lights of the library and the terror of 8 AM deadlines, it’s easy to feel like a tired background character in your own life. But the latest campus movement—the “Soft Life” academic—isn’t about dropping out; it’s about reframing the grind.

It’s time to stop suffering through your degree and start romanticizing it. Here is how to make studying feel less like a chore and more like a scene from a movie.

1. The Aesthetic: Pick Your Player

If you look good, you study good. The “Romanticizing Education” trend is all about setting the scene so your brain wants to be there.

• Dark Academia: Think heavy rain, tweed blazers, classical music, and old libraries. If you are writing a literature essay, light a candle (or use a battery one for the dorm), put on a “Rainy Hogwarts” playlist, and pretend you are uncovering an ancient mystery, not just summarizing a textbook.
• Light Academia: Think beige sweaters, iced oat lattes, sunlight, and cream-colored highlighters. It’s about softness and optimism. The Hack: Don’t study in sweatpants in bed. Put on an outfit that makes you feel capable. If you treat studying like a serious, cinematic event, your focus will follow.

2. The Solo Study Date

Stop waiting for a study group that ends up just gossiping for two hours. The “Solo Date” reclaims loneliness as luxury.

• The Ritual: Take yourself to a local coffee shop—not the campus cafeteria. Buy the expensive drink. That $6 latte isn’t a waste of money; it is “rent” for the table and a bribe for your dopamine receptors.
• The Mindset: You aren’t “alone at a cafe working.” You are a mysterious scholar working on their masterpiece. It sounds silly, but framing the session as a “treat” rather than a “task” drastically lowers resistance to starting.

3. The “Sunday Reset”

Anxiety usually hits hard on Sunday night (the “Sunday Scaries”). The “Soft Life” answer is the Sunday Reset.

• The Routine: This is a non-negotiable 2-hour window to get your life together. It usually involves three steps:
  1. Physical: Change the sheets and do the laundry. A clean space equals a clean mind.
  2. Digital: Clear your desktop screenshots and organize your files for the week.
  3. Visual: Write out the week’s schedule on a physical planner or whiteboard.
• Why it works: You aren’t doing homework; you are preparing to do homework. By Monday morning, you wake up feeling organized and ahead of the game, rather than waking up in panic mode.

The Vibe Check: You can’t control the difficulty of your exams, but you can control the vibe while you prepare for them. Studying doesn’t have to be miserable. Light the candle, buy the coffee, and be the main character of your own education.