Teens are overloaded with stress

How much time do you spend with your friends, watching TV, reading, or playing video games? How often do you do things you actually enjoy?

It’s my junior year at CVHS, the hardest, most important school year according to teachers and students alike. I have a relaxed schedule, but a lot of my classmates are struggling with the workload from their AP and honors classes. There is always someone falling asleep in class because he pulled an all nighter to finish APUSH homework, someone who can’t eat lunch with friends because she has to cram some more for honors physics, or someone who needs to go straight home after school because an essay is waiting to be rewritten.

And what for? Students with three or four AP classes aren’t taking them for fun. They are enrolled in the classes for purpose of obtaining college credit and increasing chances to get into a highly competitive university.  

The expectations for students applying to those colleges are insane. You need to be an excellent, “well-rounded” student, i.e. someone who not only takes rigorous classes and gets straight As, but also does sports and plays an instrument or participates in the musical and volunteers somewhere. Of course you also need to work, because financial aid alone won’t pay for your expenses.

If school is my place of employment, I spend as much time there as someone who works a nine-to-five job. The difference is that after my classes, I also have to do homework and study. For most of us, school takes up much more time than a full time job.

Fitting social life into our busy schedule is the key to be happy and mentally healthy. But we rarely have time to spend with our friends because there’s so much stuff to do, feel lazy when we want to watch something on Netflix instead of studying. Let’s be real, none of us gets those needed 9.25 hours of sleep.

Getting good grades is a significant factor affecting your future, but we should all try to live a healthy lifestyle. It’s okay to drop a class if it stresses you out. Set a regular time for yourself to go to bed at night, because caffeine is not an acceptable replacement for sleep. Do something for yourself every day, whether it’s hanging out with friends, reading, or playing a video game. School should not be more important than your well-being.