Sahana Narayan: Week 15 - This Time in My Life
Sahana Narayan - Week 15: This Time in My Life – 4/27 [7:50 PM]
Spring of junior year is known as one of the worst times of a highschooler’s life. There’s obviously the grades, the AP exams, and the extracurriculars, but I think for me, one thing has stood out the most: watching the seniors move on. I can’t even count the amount of times I have said, “God, I wish I was a second semester senior.” To be done with high school, done with the pressure and the stress of all of it, seems freeing.
A part of that envy of a senior comes from me wanting an end to the struggle. I want to be at a period in my life where I can look back on these tough times and laugh at how unnecessary the constant anxiety felt was. I can laugh at the time when I couldn't listen to music for a week because I was worried it would distract me from studying for a grade breaking calc exam. I can shake my head in disbelief at the continuous prayer I did leading up to an admission decision from a summer internship program. I can reminisce about the essays that I did hours before the deadline and the projects that I procrastinated on.
 |
| PC: Nick Gentry |
My final advice would be that if you’re going to treat your life like a memory, try to make it a good one. The stress and anxiety is always going to be there, trust me, I know it firsthand. But, if this time is all just going to be one single memory in our head, we might as well get some happy experiences in there.
Hi Sahana! As I started to read your article, when I first came across the term, “”Spring of junior year,” I can already relate to how my emotional feelings have been from the past few months. From being worried about a decision coming out for a research program to facing a large extent of anxiety from an Physics exam that would make or break my final grade, I have constantly been facing a phase of dilemma that affected my mental health by a lot. Although I understand that our grades right now don’t define our success for the future, a sense of peer pressure from your competitive peers could make you want to work harder to achieve your goals. I agree that we just have to remember that this will be a one time experience for us in our lives, and after a point of time, we should be getting back to normal. Thank you for your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana, I can really relate to your blog because I have been super stressed regarding applications and upcoming AP exams. Your blog was the perfect reminder that a few years from now, all of this stress and grind will be just a memory. A lot of our struggles right now will become meaningless. It makes everything feel less severe. As we all are stressing over AP Exams, I think your blog was a great reminder to make sure that we have some good happy experiences so that when we look back at our highschool experiences, we can smile and find happiness.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana, I like how your blog post touches on the idea of how you are stressed about school right now, and you keep telling yourself that when you hit the second semester of senior year you will feel free from the anxiety that you are feeling. We as students always have an idea of when we will be free, but we are chasing "freedom" that is unattainable. The human brain functions in such a way that a lot of times if there is nothing to be anxious about, it will find a way to be anxious even in the best of situations. That's why we hear rich famous people that did everything in their power to get to their position, but once they finally hit that position they talk about how it isn't what it seems. It is also why we anticipate summer vacation so much, but once vacation hits we can not wait to go back to school.
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana! I also think about watching the seniors move on but in a more melancholy way. I've become friends with a good number of seniors throughout middle school and high school, but especially this year because half of the varsity badminton team is seniors, and I really love the sense of community within the badminton team. Badminton next year really won't be the same without the seniors and I'm quite sad to see them go. I actually really value memories. Recently I've been debating whether or not to attend prom, because the last time I went to an event was during eighth grade, where I just played games on my phone the entire time until we could leave and I hated it. However, prom is a once in a lifetime event, and I feel like if I were to skip it, I'd look back on it later and regret not attending. However, I also really struggle with forgetting bad experiences that I've already learned from, but still cannot move on from. Good luck with your AP studying!
ReplyDeleteHi Sahana! Just like everyone else, I also look forward to summer vacation or even the second semester of senior year. I guess that this is just a part of human nature and that it's a tendency for everyone, not just high school students, to look forward to a time where they imagine having a better quality of life. I suppose that I can't magically expect life to be perfect once I'm in college or even once I'm done with education overall. I also really liked your point about how even the most stressful periods of our lives will be memories in the end. I personally also find comfort in the fact that high school is a relatively short period in our lives, and that any bad memories won't affect us too much in a few years.
ReplyDeleteHey Sahana, I totally agree with your blog this week. I've found myself thinking so often about just fast forwarding past these AP tests and the SAT, sometimes even beyond that to just being in college. Sometimes I even see people and imagine how they no longer have to worry about things like AP testing and getting into college, but just get to live their normal and typical lives, free of these academic stresses. However, I like to think that that's what I'm doing all of this for, and that all of this hard work and unnecessary stress will redeem itself in a nice, relaxing everyday life. In the short term, I like to plan out some fun or relaxing activities following my AP testing and SAT, such that I have something to look forward to beyond hours of testing.
ReplyDeleteJunior year has been pretty difficult up to now. It would have been so much easier if I did not have my current math teacher (all due respect, your class is way harder than it needs to be). The many APs are about to absolutely ruin me, and the amount of Saturdays that I lost to SAT prep have been so saddening to my video game career. But everybody I know has already gone through this path. They all had to suffer through junior year, and some of them had much more difficult paths than I did. Their sacrifices motivate me to push on, and I hope that I will make it through with my sanity intact.
ReplyDelete