Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical pain and there are different ways of dealing with it. However, a University in the Netherlands is helping its students deal with exam stress by offering them a grave.
According to The Mirror, Radboud University, in the town of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, dug a “purification grave” to help its student reflect on the transience of life and deal with anxieties during exam periods.
In addition to the grave, the institution offers nap pods, standard counselling service and they also have options such as a finals-season “crying room”.
The grave is an open hole in the ground, in the garden behind the student church. The chaplaincy provides a dry mat and a pillow if students desire. Plant roots poke through the dirt walls, and plastic tape is set up around it to prevent students from falling in.
There is a sign inside of the grave which says “stay weird”.
According to the students, the out-of-the-ordinary project is so popular they had to be put on a waiting list to secure an early grave. Sean McLaughlin, a student said:
“Me and my housemate were planning on going a week ago, a week and a half ago, and we found that there is a waiting list to actually get into the grave, so it’s quite popular, so we didn’t get the chance yet, but I plan to go sometime soon whenever I move up,”
The project’s initiator John Hacking, who works at the student chapel, explained that the creation would help the young generation appreciate the beauty of life.
“The end of life, death, is a taboo, difficult for students… death is very difficult to talk about, especially when you are 18, 19, 20 years old.”
The student chaplaincy–sponsored “purification grave” was promoted with the catchphrase: “memento mori” —Latin for “remember you will die”.
THE GUARDIAN