Junior year is thought by many to be the most stressful year of a high schooler’s life. With junior year wrapping up June 13, and those of us who are juniors moving into the start of senior year, a mix of excitement and stress fills the air. For me, I am filled with excitement for the start of senior year, and I just can’t wait for graduation.
Reflecting back on the start of this year, I was expecting nothing but stress from SAT’s and loads of school work that I would gain from my teachers. Now, months later, I can look back on the most joyous moments with my friends and feel the stress give way to excitement. From spending hours together outside of school to simply walking around in the halls, junior year has been memorable. Simple things such as talking to my teachers or even just bothering them became a somewhat memorable part of my experience. Junior year gave me the ability to connect with many new people and pretty much all of my teachers. Looking back and realizing that junior year wasn’t as rigorous as everyone had claimed and I feared it would lead me to wonder: should I have been tougher on myself this year or is senior year just smooth sailing?
Although I might not have put myself through the same challenges that those before me did, I think the amount of stress a person goes through in school really depends on their academic strength and perception of what is challenging. For some people, just getting to school is a challenge; for others, being in a number of AP classes is what drives them to work harder. For me, I think I’ve learned this year that I need to balance my activities outside of school and my workload. Hopefully, with a full schedule during my senior year, I won’t have to worry about missing any work and failing my classes.
I think I managed my junior year pretty decently, focusing on school and also managing my social life outside of it. In school, I had to mainly focus on managing my time while working on my toughest assignments from my AP classes. As a result of the overwhelming amount of work my AP teachers assigned, I found it hard to manage my time. Even though some of them responded to student concerns with “You know what you signed up for,” it still felt to be too much at times. Generally though, I found it easy to ask for their advice and gain their support on the assignments. Spending time outside of school with my friends, journaling, listening to music, and going on walks were some of the therapeutic ways I dealt with any stress that school threw at me.
As for senior year – I know it won’t all be easy; but since I was mainly able to handle junior year okay, I am hoping senior year follows a similar path. I hope that I am able to grow a closer connection with my teachers, surround myself with people who support and bring me comfort, have enough time to work on my assignments, and maintain my overall health.
