Ring!
The characters walk through the hallways as if they own them. Lockers slam; people carry cold drinks and bottles; music and wind come from nowhere. Students make plans for after-school. It feels like a dream!
That’s a movie, by the way. Growing up, watching those movies made the anticipation of high school almost unbearable. I longed for the hallways that would one day be my runway, and I longed to make plans after school to go to the mall and hang out with my friends.
However, as I quickly found out, high school in the movies is quite different from high school in real life. Sure, it is fun and new, but it can be challenging and anxiety inducing. Even as a freshman, my classmates and I are already starting to feel the burn of anxiety induced by heavier coursework and additional responsibilities. Tests and homework are harder than ever, and time to relax decreases hour by hour.
These trends aren’t unique to me, or even New York. Studies from all over the U.S. and the world show that anxiety levels in high school students are dangerously high, and need to be dropped. The American Psychological Association released an article titled “Studies Show Normal Children Report More Anxiety than Child Psychiatric Patients in the 1950’s.”. This study also included older students. The study suggested that depression will likely increase in coming decades, and anxiety usually precedes the onset of substance abuse.
According to a Pew survey, 70 percent of teens saw anxiety and depression as a “major problem” among their friends and 26 percent report that it is a minor problem. Kathy Reamy, a school counselor at La Plata High School in southern Maryland said, “Honestly, I’ve had more students this year hospitalized for anxiety, depression, and other mental-health issues than ever…There’s just so much going on in this day and age, the pressures to fit in, the pressure to achieve, the pressure of social media. And then you couple that with the fact that kids can’t even feel safe in their schools—they worry genuinely about getting shot—and it all makes it so much harder to be a teenager.”
Reamy’s words speak to the vast majority of students in our generation. With worries about college, school work, studying, tests, as well as the pressure to fit in with others, students don’t have much time to relax and get rid of anxiety.
And while anxiety often seems like an unbeatable force, there are ways to scale this challenge. It can be helpful to take a break from school and work every day, and take an hour to yourself. Do what makes you happy. Don’t join clubs just for the sake of joining them or to look good on college applications. Doing what you’re passionate about will mean more to colleges than being in 200 clubs. No matter what, school should be a fun experience and being with your friends and family will make you happy. Take time to appreciate the smaller things in life, and slowly improve your time management skills, and realize that a test grade or a missing assignment doesn’t define you as a person. But most importantly, just be yourself.