For the past few days, all I’ve been hearing is talk about course selections and junior year.

It’s stressful, obviously. I mean, all we hear is that junior year is incredibly difficult and that it’s the most important year of all. SATs, APs, college applications. It’s overwhelming just to think about it. 

But, it’s gotten to the point where it’s so repetitive that I’ve been asked what classes I’m taking by the same people multiple times. I get it, we’re all worried. We all have this passion to be the best. Even still, let’s sit down and take a breather.

We expect so much from ourselves. I’m constantly up late at night, finishing homework, making sure that my work is sufficient and often times we sacrifice sleep for a single letter grade. Sure,  it’s always great to push ourselves to our full potential.

But how far can we push before we burn ourselves out?

And this is a genuine question. I’m trying to find the answer just as everybody else is. What happens when we reach our capacity of stress and confusion and worry?

What happens then?

I know for one that I don’t want to find out. Just one more day of no sleep, one more day of dedicated solely to homework, one more day of talk only about college. And I’ll find out. 

Now, I know that this is just another hurdle before college. Life isn’t just one smooth ride, it takes a lot of dedication to be successful. I understand that, and live by it too. 

Nevertheless, it’s hard to ignore the facts. In a survey taken by the social network After School, 45 percent of high school students said that they constantly feel stressed. And this is without the added pressure that comes with picking your courses and figuring out how to handle all your advanced classes. 

This penned up stress we all seem to have inside of us can pose various health risks in the future. Sleep, exercise, and eating. The three most common events toyed with when it comes to high school students. We either do too much or too little of said activities hoping it’ll suppress whatever hardships we face. It’s important to remember that we aren’t even adults yet. Yes, we have so many expectations laid upon us, and yes our workload is immense, but this isn’t even the worst part. 

This is just the beginning of the rest of our lives. If we don’t learn how to handle our problems now, when will we? It takes time to find that perfect balance. Work, and relaxation.

All I hope is that we find that balance sooner than later.