School is stressful. There are no shortcuts, no way of making it easier, and no way of making it go by any faster.

More often than not, we’ll rush the work or hope the teacher will change their mind about a due date. In the end, we turn in what we have and hope it’s just enough to get that A. While we strive for better, it’s hard not to burn out along the way.

At the beginning of the school year, we feel ready to take on anything the world will throw at us. By the time the end of the semester comes around, our perspectives have changed. We go from neat, clean binders to messy, unorganized papers crumpled and shoved to the bottom of our backpacks.

During this change, our stress levels go up, and the late nights that we spent studying catch up to us. We all end up tired and burnt out. It seems like a never-ending cycle of total exhaustion.

From personal experience, I can openly say that going to school every day is one of the hardest things to do. For some, this is a simple part of daily life, but for me, just stepping out of the car is a daunting task.

I find myself worrying about whether or not the essay I wrote last night was well written or hoping that the hours I spent studying will pay off in the present. It’s easy to be fixated on these things.

Trying to stay above the water in classes is one of the biggest challenges high schoolers face, as well as the weight of doing the work well and not giving it only half of your energy.

With the stress of family and sports, it’s difficult to keep a balance between all of life’s demands, all while keeping yourself in mind and not just doing what everyone else wants you to do.

It’s incredibly difficult trying to worry about not only being the smartest, but also the coolest, and most athletic. All these standards everyone is trying to keep up with get obnoxiously overwhelming and soon we hit a wall using every ounce of energy we have left to break through or make that final cut.

Well, this is high school. In the midst of all of this, we are expected to be amazing students and role models, those are some pretty big shoes to fill. We get caught in a whirlwind of responsibility and being a kid. While being some of the best years of our lives, the high school years are also some of the most confusing.

It is hard to avoid these problems as they are being hurled at us, but these are valuable lessons to learn as well. Dealing with all of this is a struggle, but it’s impossible to avoid so we might as well take it as it crosses our path. Because we can’t change it, we should embrace it.

Through all this staying focused seems unfeasible, but that doesn’t mean it is. Instead of burning out from the stress, we should burn through it.