Imagine going to bed at 9:30pm every night and waking up feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the day. How come this is not a reality for most teenagers anymore? Learning to balance your time, and manage your schedule is a difficult task to learn, but it is something that has to be done. When analyzing how much the typical student endures in just one week has brought to light talks about mental health, and the impact school and education has on your mental stability.

Mental health is often a conversation that gets dodged. Many teens here at Blaine are taking rigorous courses that involve a lot of time and can bring on mass amounts of stress. On top of taking rigorous courses teens often times place a high importance on their social lives, and trying to find that balance between school and a social life is very difficult. Many teachers and adults often tell a tall tale about how you only get to live out your high school days once and to make the very best of those four years, but in all reality how can we as students learn to live and experience the phase of being young and dumb when we have an AP world test on monday, a College Bio exam on tuesday followed by three chapters of reading because the teachers do not seem to actually teach the material but instead force it upon the students to teach it to themselves, along with a Hon Pre-calculus test that wednesday followed with AP World homework and more College Biology reading, then on thursday more homework and a test in AP Language and Composition followed with on Friday an AP Psychology test with College Biology homework, AP World homework, an AP Lang and Comp four page paper that is due on monday, and two chapters of AP Psychology to read and take notes on. Where in the above schedule is there time for a social life? Eating? Sleeping? Sports? Clubs? Where is there even time to take a moment and just breath? Doing a full two trimesters of that would be enough to cause a person serious stress trying to balance it all.

As a student who is taking rigorous courses much like the ones stated above, I understand that that is a choice. As a student you are responsible for your own education, and it is up to you to decide what classes and what courses you are bound to take. I also understand the teacher’s perspective in saying that it is an AP course, and the rigor of those courses are a lot more precise and challenging than just taking a regular course. However, I do not think some teachers understand that there is a reason we as students are in high school first. Piling on the homework and the tests will not teach us how to manage our time, and be prepared for the college life. In the end it will just end up teaching us how to cram or memorize a paper, be stressed out and not want to go to school, or just give up in taking those challenging courses because you simply can not handle the stress and workload.

Students, your mental health should always come first. No matter what class loads or the rigor of the classes you are taking should consume your life, and make you feel so entirely stressed out. It is ok to drop that one college class that is stressing you out. That one class does not determine your acceptance into a good college. Make time for your friends and your social life, experience new things, and make the best out of these four years. In choosing what classes to take, not only should you think about challenging yourself and getting the best education you can get, but think about your mental health and how much you can handle.