Stress is a motivation

In the vernacular of the human race, these three words are said so often that sometimes we can miss the deeper meaning of it. These three words make up an expression that is quite well known to everyone, especially students like me who are in the hectic midst of their high school and potential college careers: “I’m so stressed.”

I am a procrastinator at heart. I will guiltily admit that you can always catch me at my locker or in class scrambling to finish my homework or study for my test next period. I have a tendency to push things back until I get to the point where I realize I have so much work to do in so little time.

You may criticize, agree, or even laugh at my terrible study habits; the fact of the matter is, it’s the way I live and it’s how I learn things better regardless if it puts tons of pressure on me in a short amount of time. When I realize I need to get started on certain tasks, I get motivated from stress to focus harder and dedicate myself to the assignment, compared to my lack of enthusiasm when attempting to get a head start on something.

As a college-bound senior, it gives me anxiety to know that just a month from now, I’ll know whether I got in my top schools or not. The balance of academics and extracurricular activities are definite causes for stress and sometimes students like me may feel overwhelmed and emotional. It’s mostly a matter of perception. A roller coaster ride may be torture for some, while others race for the next ride. Multi-tasking or living in a hectic city environment is a thrill for some, but a confusing sensory overload for others.

But perhaps stress isn’t the enemy—it’s how we deal with stress that matters. Stress will always be a natural, unavoidable part of life. The goal isn’t an absence of stress by limiting how many things you want do in life. You simply just have to get through it. Channeling negative energy into positive energy by coping mechanisms such as exercise and deep breathing really has helped me whenever I felt my stress levels were rising too high.

Let’s face it; without stress, life would be a pretty monotonous existence. We may talk about cutting it from our lives, but we need those precious, powerful fight-or-flight hormones our bodies produce to help us jump back on our feet.