Leora Tripp Week 9: Will life ever get easier?

 Will life ever get easier? 

After reading and replying to Sophia's blog post last week centered around the exponential stress that comes with maturing, I was inspired to share my thoughts on the subject. 

    When middle school began, I developed the skills necessary to survive in school and began feeling pressure to perform well. As each school year went by, I juggled more tests, projects, and homework simultaneously. During this stage in my life, I also pursued different out-of-school activities and hobbies, slowly figuring out what I was most passionate about. 

    The transitions from one year to the next felt smooth, leaving me feeling prepared for each year. However, once I entered high school, the transition from grade to grade felt less subtle; my parents' and teachers' expectations and academic workload increased significantly each year. This rising academic pressure and increased time spent on extracurricular activities have left me feeling stressed and exhausted.

    Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle; I'm constantly keeping up with my work, and if I miss one class or wait until the last night to complete an assignment, my work piles up, leaving me completely overwhelmed. Tenth grade entails more AP classes, PSAT practice, and challenging curriculums. On top of the academic expectations I must meet, my out-of-school extracurriculars have become more and more time-consuming, leaving me with little free time to spend leisurely. I think many of us currently share this overwhelming feeling of stress and pressure, especially after the chagim end and our midterms slowly approach. 

    There are two perspectives to be taken from these overwhelming feelings that I have been trying to navigate. One is to simply mope in stress, to feel bad for myself, and lose myself in work. Another is to accept this uphill battle as a pattern in life and take it as a challenge; it is up to me to make time to see relatives and friends and do things I enjoy. Maybe life will never get simpler, and there's nothing I can change about that; however, looking at maturing in a positive light and appreciating the new independence and freedoms that I am slowly gaining helps these feelings subside and improves my overall happiness. 

Do you share any similar feelings of stress or pressure surrounding maturing?