When I was a kid, I played every chance I got. I played with my dogs. I played with my dolls. I played with my friends.  And if you were anything like me (an average kid), then you probably did the same. In fact, it’s expected that kids play. That’s what makes them, well, kids. And in a few short months, we will leave the last remnants of the kid realm and walk into the adult world – or at least an awkward middle-school-like zone in the middle of the two. The majority of us will be legal adults by the time we enter college and all of us will be given a whole lot of grown-up responsibilities. Money and jobs will become a lot more real, and play will slowly fade away into oblivion with each passing year. But we can’t allow it to.

We live in a society that focuses on end results — tangible productivity — and as a consequence, play gets shoved aside and labeled a waste of time because by its very definition play is not at all productive. It serves no practical purpose. It is only meant to bring enjoyment — and that is something we desperately need in college. According to Stuart Brown, psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute of Play, contrary to popular belief, the opposite of play is not work, but depression.  And with college depression rates being at an all-time high, we need play now more than ever.

According to the latest survey by the National Institute of Mental Health, 30% of college students reported feeling so depressed that it was too hard to function. The rates of depression for freshman alone have risen significantly in the past five years, according to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA.

But it’s not just clinically diagnosed depression that’s becoming an issue. More students are also beginning to feel overwhelmed by their school work and other commitments than in past years. More than ever before, college students are focusing more time on academics than any other activity.

It’s becoming a public health issue, according to Anthony Rostain, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania.

But while the majority of us will not experience depression in college, I can guarantee you we will all be overwhelmed with work at some point in our time on campus. From extensive papers, to finals to a multitude of other responsibilities – there will be times when school just seems too stressful. And it is at those times that we need to play.

According to clinical psychologist Penny Donnefield, play actually decreases stress hormones in the body, making a person more relaxed. But what is play? Well according to Brown, play is when the act itself is more important than the outcome. So say a group of friends is playing soccer just for the enjoyment of it – that is play. But if that group of friends is playing with the goal to win in mind – that is not play.

Play is not meant to have goals and expectations. It is meant to be purely fun. Studies have shown that play reveals more of who you are than your work. When you’re playing, you are not the work-performance you, or the perfect social presentation you. You are just you.

I’m positive that all of us will have plenty of fun times in college, but we will also have some pretty stressful times when the reality of the adult world inches closer and we just can’t seem to figure out who we are and what we want to do. So I urge you to play.

Build some forts, toss a Frisbee and do a cannonball into the deep end.

Just don’t forget to be a kid.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Naomi Reibold at [email protected].