High school is stressful. If you can’t relate to that sentiment, there is no way you are a high schooler, because our lives are crazy. Academic expectations increase over these four years, extracurricular schedules intensify, and family responsibilities grow. The constant pressures extend past the seven hour school days, into our late evenings and early mornings, Saturday afternoons, and Sunday nights.

   Because we are older, we are expected to handle so much more than we used to. We’ve advanced past the simple lessons that only required one worksheet of homework a night, into skills that have to be practiced, studied, and honed for hours each day. We’ve been a part of the same extracurricular activities for so long that we are now expected to devote more time to them. Not only do we have practice or rehearsal or class afterschool, we have conditioning and cross-training, constant attempts to advance further. We have jobs: huge time commitments to earn money for college, a car, or walking around. Then we come home from all of that, sweaty, tired, and brain-dead, only to be expected to do our chores, take care of our siblings, or get in some family bonding time.

   Existing individually in a universe with infinite hours in each day, we love the information we learn at school, look forward to the adrenaline high of extracurriculars, and cherish time with our family. It is only when all of our passions and responsibilities converge, that every day becomes a whirlwind of stress. Something’s got to give.

   One sophomore says that she “prioritizes [her] mental health.” She says, “when I feel like I’m gonna be running around a lot, I try to take an hour to maybe two hours to myself. I take a nap or play on my phone, I do something completely un-work, un-family .”

  Another student takes a different approach, saying that first she focuses on school work. “Family time and alone time can be squeezed in… like late at night.” Getting homework done first can alleviate stress later, she says.

   Find what works for you. Analyze what’s important to you and go after it. High school is stressful, but getting priorities in order can help calm each day down. We are all going through stressful days, but let’s find community in that and strive to find solutions to that stress.