Anusha+Prasad+2014

The Stress of High School

People (mostly adults) often talk about how high school was one of the best times in their life. But I genuinely do not see it that way. High school has been a time of various emotions and feelings, but it has mainly been one of a stress. Starting freshman year, a big stress for me was honors biology. Nights were spent studying frantically for pop quizzes, known quizzes, or tests. Sophomore year, the stress grew with AP US History and Language and Literature II with Mrs. Kane. Every night consisted again of frantic studying or pages of reading. Often times, weekends felt like school nights with the amount of work given or amount of studying to be done. Tears were shed and no one was probably more relieved at the end of the year than I was. The summer did not feel like much of a vacation either with SAT prep well on its way and summer homework. My parents often complained that I didn’t do anything except lock myself in my room to accomplish a certain amount of work each day. As much as those two years were stressful, nothing could have prepared me for the stress that would come with junior year. RIght from September, I realized that missing a day of school was like death and should be avoided at all costs. Work piled up from day one and has since then been thrust upon us relentlessly. The classes that bring the most stress this year are AP Government and Politics and APUSH II. Nights are again spent frantically studying and trying to finish various homework assignments. But the stress doesn’t end there. SATs and ACTs continue to be source of stress, with Tuesday and Thursday evenings spent at prep classes. AP exams, though in May, continue to exists like a looming storm of doom, and bring stress everyday. With all this stress, it shocks me that people could ever say that high school was one of the best times of life. The stress leaves much to be desired and despite being surrounded by friends that go through the same thing, the experience remains one of stress and exhaustion. Friends in college continue to say that college is so much better and nothing like high school, which brings me hope. The only thing that truly keeps me going is the fact that if I work hard now, I won’t have to work as hard later in life. It seems like a decent trade-off though I probably won’t ever stop complaining about the horrible four years that made up high school. And I most definitely will never say that it was one of the best times of my life. That is reserved for college.