Overloaded

With activities such as sports, choir, orchestra, debate, and many others, it can be hard for students to find a balance between them all

Overloaded

Elise Dowler

Each year students everywhere struggle with stress. They spend days and nights studying whether it be for exams, or for their applications to college. Students live in exhausting anticipation waiting for that one response that will either make or break them.
“I get up and get ready around 6:45-7a.m., then I don’t usually go to bed until about 2 a.m. I always try to make sure everything is done and ready for the next day,” junior Kaitlin Anousis said. “I get ready, go to school, come home for a little and do homework, then I go to work, baby sit then I go to bed.”
Anousis is one of many students at East who has their plate filled with lots to do.
“Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days of the week. Those days I have debate right after school, then I go home to baby sit my niece and nephews. On Wednesdays I have to go pick up my family then I go to work,” Anousis said.
With the many hours spent on extracurriculars and things outside of school, the large amount of school work can be pushed to the side.
“It can be pretty hard sometimes to try and balance everything, but I do my best to stay on top of it all, if I ever get behind I immediately go to that teacher and talk to them,’’ junior Corey Mills said.
Every once and a while that stress can be too much and can becomes overwhelming. A lot of stress people have starts outside of school with family.
“The things that stresses me out the most is family. Since my mom was diagnosed with Skin Cancer, I try to spend as much time as I can with her because I never know when the last day will be,” Mills said. Many people take that stress with them wherever they go, and it ends up becoming a lot worse.
The best thing to do is to try and cope with it.
“To cope with my stress, I throw around a football or hang out with friends, whenever I do either of those, I feel like all my stress disappears,” Mills said.
Something a lot of people do not realize is that not all stress is negative.
“I do have negative stress like with my teaching or with students, but I also have positive stress with getting things done, like being under stress and perceiving, I feel like everyone needs to be aware that not all stress is bad and its ok to be stressed out occasionally,” Teacher Stephanie Clark said.
The best thing to do when stressed is to learn from the mistakes made and not to let it get in the way of your striving for.
”If you can balance time, then you can manage anything, but if you let stress overcome you, you’re not going to get very far in life,” Anousis said