Stress holds our brains captive and we need to stop letting it.

It is only about a month into school, and I am extremely stressed. I don’t know about you, but these last few weeks have not been the easiest. As high school students, we are unfairly put under an immense amount of pressure to meet the expectations of our superiors.

In a utopian society, we would be focused on actually learning and reflecting on how much we’ve grown through our academic classes. We would do things that make us happy, rather than what we thought we had to do in order to get into our top college. Learning would be fun.

In an ideal world, stress is minimal. However, in our reality, stress is inevitable.

In this reality, anxiety-provoking letters sit mockingly on your report card each quarter, inequitably representing the knowledge you have acquired through your selected courses. Your self-worth is defined by the seemingly harmless letters A, B, C, D, and NP.

This year, I am taking some of the best classes I have taken at de Toledo. I feel as though I am really learning the material, and am enjoying learning it. That being said, my grades are not always reflective of the hard work and passion I am putting into my assignments. Therefore, my previous self-confidence and assurance in my work is being demolished. These little letters hold the power to diminish our confidence in ourselves and in our ability to perform well academically.

We are all judged similarly, and therefore are all expected to get the same high grades, and be involved in equally as many extracurriculars. We are all lumped together. There is a large flaw in this: Each person learns in a different way and has different passions. A large weight sits upon students to maintain these high expectations.

We have been programmed our whole lives to do the right thing, the best thing. As we get older, the right thing has become doing things that will good look on paper, such as taking many extracurriculars and incorporating hard classes into your schedule. Students are under the impression that in order to get into a good college, they must have great grades, be involved in many clubs and leadership programs, and must have a clean record.

We are super-heroes. We take tons of rigorous classes, participate in multiple sports, become high-ranking members of various clubs at school, all while trying to maintain a social life. This doesn’t include family obligations and outside commitments.

The sad part is that in all of these stress-provoking responsibilities, we forget one important thing. We are still kids. We don’t deserve the stress that exists inside our minds and bodies.

Societal norms tell us that we can handle it; the 4.0 GPA, rigorous classes, a high social standard, being president of multiple clubs, etc. We are also under the expectation that we can achieve all of this flawlessly while keeping a composed stature. We are supposed to hide the stress that slowly eats away at our bodies.

We are causing physical detriments to our bodies. We are setting ourselves up to crack, and forgetting something very important: We are only human.

I often sit at home, scrolling through my Haiku page, beating myself up over assignments that I could have done better on. In the academic world, once you’ve reached high school, small things make a larger impact than one would think.

I recently forgot to get my syllabus signed. I did not forge my mother’s signature, because I felt that I should be honest with myself, my mom, and my new teacher about the situation. I turned in the syllabus during the next class period and got 50% taken off. This lowered my grade from a 100% to an 83%. I now have an 83% in math because I forgot to have my mom sign a paper explaining the dynamics of my math class.

I continue to torture myself over this.  Should I have forged the signature in order to keep my grade high? Did forgetting to have this small piece of paper signed the day it was due make me a bad student? No, it makes me human.

Everything we do has become focused upon becoming the “perfect student.” However, the reality is that there is no such thing as a “perfect student.”

We can’t focus on the things that are uncontrollable to us. If you got a bad grade on an assignment, there’s nothing you can do about it now. It is in the past. Yes, you can ask your teacher for something to help boost your grade, but if that fails, there is no need in stressing yourself over something so useless.

We shouldn’t stress over things in the past, but should instead focus on how to prevent them from recurring in the future. We need to be proactive in order to lower our future stress levels.

Stress will never go away; it is inescapable. That being said, we cannot let these societal expectations control us. We need to take the reins in order to remain positive. We can’t let stress assume dominance over the confidence we have in ourselves.  

If you work hard and don’t get into your dream college, then it wasn’t meant to be. You will end up at a college that is right for you. A school that you originally dreamed of going to may not be the right fit after all. It will be hard to face, but that is life. Life is hard and messy and unexplainable. Life is unpredictable and stressful.

We can’t let this stress control our emotions and infect our minds. We don’t deserve that. We are all capable human beings who deserve the right to be happy. If that means not taking an AP class and instead taking the honors or at-level version, then do that. One AP class will not dictate your future. Your happiness comes above all.

As long as you work hard and are passionate, you will end up right where you need to be. Forgetting to have my syllabus signed may affect my immediate future, but it will not control the rest of my life. Therefore, there is no point in allowing it to eat away at my mind.

Be happy, don’t compare yourselves to your peers around you, and take classes that you thoroughly enjoy. A stupid letter does not define who you are as a person, or even what type of student you are.

You are each a strong and intelligent person in your own way, and you should not let stress take over your perfectly capable minds.