The Stress is Real!

Emily Smith, Staff Writer

Hello, this is your inner voice warning you about this particular article: this is not your typical article. This is mainly a rant. So you do not have to read the article, let’s be clear: the message is to have time management. Even though time management is easier said than done, if you were to just take a moment and plan out your time, you would have a better time in life. For example: give yourself 20 minutes to study, 10 minutes to watch tv, then 30 minutes to clean, and repeat until you are successful. This is not an ideal schedule, so do not follow that to a T. Everyone is different, and their mind works differently. Do what is best for you, and continue with your amazingness. This has been your warning. Grab some popcorn and sit back for the catastrophe of a lifetime that you now have knowledge of. Sorry, not sorry. 

Welcome to the world of a winter athlete, part-time worker, and a student in her senior year of high school. This may seem like a lot, and you’d be right. It definitely is. Most can handle it or at least hide the stress to where those around cannot see them. This student, however, can not. I am having the most stressful year of my life for no reason at all. To be honest, I should probably manage my time, however, I do not, which is a huge problem in my life. Do I  realize this? Yes. Do I do anything about it? No. Why do I do this to myself? No one knows. Even my friends will tell me that there is no use getting stressed about things in my life, but I still get stressed over the most minute issues. 

One thing I stress over is school. School is a big part of my life considering I want to become an Early Childhood Teacher. Yet, with the numerous amounts of years I have been in school, however I know nothing about managing time. I spend most nights studying and then failing the test due to not retaining the knowledge or confusing it with something else I have learned. I also stay up super late to continue writing multiple essays or trying to figure out that one excustating math problem that I continue to go back to. Honestly, I need to figure out what I am  doing wrong and actually fix it because it’s really unhealthy for me to stay up in the dead of night trying to make things perfect that will never reach my standards. 

Next, is work. Work isn’t that bad for me. I started in July so I understand what  needs to be done, etc. The part that stresses me out the most is the fact that I need to stay there till closing on most school days. Now, I am not going to lie, it is worse now due to the holiday season and then there are the weekends as well. However, I do not have time on my break to study most of the time and most of us are unable to have our phones at the registers, meaning I cannot continue writing an essay. I am able to study most of the time by writing on the receipt paper or the associate review paper. Then I go home to see if all of that studying was worth it and I find out that all of it is wrong. 

Lastly, it’s time for the sports section. I am not a sports person and gets injured fairly easily. Why did I choose to join the swim team is beyond everyone, but I am  somewhat happy and not sitting on the couch all day watching Youtube or playing video games while procrastinating other work. Actually, now that I think about it, swimming takes a lot of time and puts more stress on me even though I get home at about nine o’clock giving me an hour of study time. The only problem is… I become exhausted due to the work out. Why is am I swimming? What is motivating me? Well, considering I had a shoulder injury that took me out during the middle of the freshman season and then I was unable to swim due to still having the injury sophomore year. I wanted to continue swimming to make up for missing the other two seasons, even if I struggle to keep it in my schedule.

All of these activities combined is most teenagers’ worst nightmare, just saying. No one wants to be this way (aka I am saying to never be this way so don’t do it). This means the moral of the story is: if you see a stressed child who looks like the author’s  photo, do not bother them because they will continue this rant and complain and whine if given the opportunity. Thank you for time and take the message in the warning seriously, or you will end up like me- an overly-stressed mess.