To say that students nowadays have a lot on their plate is an understatement. Really, how do students do it? We are required to spend 7 hours at school, plus the demanding load of school work now required for students to get into a decent college, in addition to the expectations of actively participating in clubs and extra-curriculars.

Don’t forget that some students are in need of a job because of homelife and some may have to put their own gas in their car. Some employers don’t understand the stress of today’s high schools and schedule kids an unjustifiable amount of hours. I don’t even want to mention the fact that students are assigned more homework than possibly necessary.

Just one Advanced Placement, or even Honors or Advanced course, can give a student an overload of work and studying. Another issue that bothers me, and I’m sure other students agree, is the fact that teachers will assign 2 hours worth of homework (sometimes more), not factoring in the equation that students have 6 other challenging courses along with outside of school commitments. How can this be reasonable?

Not to mention, if a student is involved in a full-time sport, that takes up most of their free time. I know many people who are involved in more than one sport or year long sports that require a taxing amount of practice hours. It’s sad that athletes have to miss a practice or two just to get schoolwork done in time, myself being one of those people.

All of these activities are imperative to make a college application look appealing. So the question is, how are students able to manage all of this and still remain sane? Honestly, I would like to know the answer myself. The best answer I can come up with is: teens can’t possibly balance all these requirements.

This is a major problem in today’s modern society. You have to make a choice: good grades, a social life, or enough sleep. I would like to see someone have all three. High school is supposed to be the best years of our lives, not a place that gives kids anxiety and health issues. High school should be an enjoyable time to look back on, but all the stress and strain has put a dark cloud on the teenagers of today’s society. I speak for most of the student body when I say that having a balanced teenage life is near to impossible. There are too many responsibilities put on students now a days, and unfortunately I don’t see this train wreck slowing down anytime soon.