Tea Time: Stress and Anxiety
What stresses RHS out?
We sent out a survey in the cafeteria, and the responses started pouring in… What follows is a compilation of advice addressing the most common concerns.
Finding Balance
Finding balance is high school can be almost impossible. You have to juggle school, sports, social life, work, and extracurriculars while being expected to excel in each. Today more than ever, us students are overloaded. Most of our parents only remember taking one AP, being a member of one or two clubs, and applying to two colleges. A high achieving student at Rhinebeck is expected to balance a minimum of 7 AP’s with as many leadership positions as they can and apply to a substantial list of colleges. It clear our generation struggles more than ever with finding balance. So what is the solution?
One place to start is to check your priorities. If you are planning to be an artist, make art your priority. Lay off on the AP’s and focus on your path. You will be a better artist and a happier person for it. Even if you don’t have a plan for your life, gravitate to what you genuinely enjoy. If that’s AP’s great, if it’s your techno funk band, amazing.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expand your horizons at all, but if you have an interest and stick with it, you will have a more clear and developed idea of where you want to go in life.
So don’t spread yourself too thin. Even if your not sure, let your interests guide your prioritizing and time management.
The News
Yeah this is pretty grim. If can vote, please vote. Write letters and call your representatives. Or someday maybe even run for office. Then maybe our news cycle will be a little more positive.
Being Understood
This is the quintessential high school struggle. But as much as we’d like to think it’s only a problem in high school movies, fitting in proves to be an issue in real life.
The only advice I can really give is to join clubs, classes, and other extracurriculars you enjoy. Through this outreach you will meet people that share your interests; people you are more likely to fit in with.
It can be intimidating to find your “crowd” out of the whole school, but by narrowing down your candidates to people that share your interests, the task can be much less daunting.
Sports
Don’t stress to much about sports. While your on the team it might feel like it consumes your whole life. But unless you are planning on becoming a professional athlete or trying to get an athletic scholarship it’s not SO high pressure. Make sure you make time for studies and clubs. But by no means should you have to leave your sport.
The Future
The Future… Who isn’t worried about the future? The best advice I can give is that everything happens for a reason.
You may have your mind set on attending one particular college or getting one job. But if it doesn’t work out, so be it. When one door closes, another, maybe better, door opens up.
Sad Writings • Jun 12, 2019 at 1:33 pm
I wrote this after failing a math test I’ve been studying for two weeks. enjoy
The once structured, unbreakable force sits in a library holding back tears. Made of broken cells, an uninhabitable creature cries out in pain in their own thoughts hoping someone has opened their third eye and can hear their hurt. At this point, that’s the only way anyone will know things aren’t going well. That they are so far from well it’s amazing that shes still here. They speak in tongue into her ears, confusing her brain, unable to detect the words they speak in a language she should understand. Is this the drugs doing this? The meds? The lack of self-control? What will become of this force, this creature? Will she rot in her place or will she transform into someone stronger that can handle the world she was never able to. Tonight she’ll close her eyes and dream of train and cars passing by, scraping the tips of her toes and nose. Too far away, but much too close. So she’ll smile bright an idea others would shudder away from and pretend that Math has no impact on her self worth.