Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

As we all appreciate the importance of this holiday, and enjoy the day without work or school-- oh wait, school starts tomorrow! Yes, for us college students, the start of the new semester is already creeping up on us. Some colleges start tomorrow, others start around this or next week, and a few have already started! Hahaha... ha. I pray for you.

As odd as it may sound, I actually feel content about my break time and I am excited to go back. I miss the environment of the campus, the friends I have made so far, and the overall experience of independence gained through my first semester in college! Do not get me wrong though, the incoming stress of the workload and possibility of exhausting classes and/or frustrating teachers will happen at any moment once classes begin and that excitement will disappear very fast. In fact, I saw this post my friend shared on her timeline from a business page HerCampus on Facebook just a few days ago:

Even though I could definitely understand, for some reason, the feeling simply wasn't there for me. But then, I thought to myself, well, it's better than high school.

And that's when it hit me. Yes, high school was worst. Actually, so much worse that I cannot fathom myself to think how I managed to at least try to relax for one week of 'break,' still have essays, projects, and assignments to do in a span of days because classes are all year round, not just cut up in semester. And sure, the workload only gets harder in college, but the reward of a brain break from doing so much school work just does not exist in high school. And don't even get me started with having to wake up around 5 or 6 am every weekday for four years straight. These things are what many high school students face today and barely manage to survive.

One of my friends brought up a good point when discussing this topic, saying:

"College just has less breaks in between. To me, college semesters are like sprinting a marathon without much training. By the end you're fit as hell, but then break happens and you just atrophy."

While I do see her point, I do want to mention the marginally giant gap there is between the breaks given in college compared to high school. This will not pertain to everyone, but we can all agree that high schools do have an unfair conscience of what they consider 'break,' specifically winter break.

If we were to take an example of an average high school last year, the minimum days a school should be required to have is ten days -- from the twenty-third of December to the second of January. Schools are allowed to have more days off, but stated in the Education Commission of the States (ECS) website, there is an updated PDF of all the states' status upon school day requirements, and over thirty states require at least 180 school days in the academic school year. This means that the more days a school takes off their schedule, the potential of not meeting the requirement increases. Then, the school will be required to add those number of days missed to the summer until they reach 180. During my freshman year of high school, the last day of school was not until June 30th because our school shut down for a whole week during Hurricane Sandy. Trust me, it was not fun.

Colleges are different, of course. Public, state universities do not have restrictions on the amount of school days and hours because of the variation between each college itself, and the state it resides on. But that brings up the question, why can't high schools have the kind of variation? Or at least settle on one, fair compromise for these high school students? Well, colleges act differently from high school when it comes to education. And believe it or not, unlike colleges, going to high school is now legally required. A school cannot decrease the amount of school days by will, unless requirements changed by the law, due to the potential of the decreasing time spent in the classroom learning and thus, inputting regulations upon public schools. As I mentioned earlier, not all states have this rule or have at least a bit of room to have fluctuation. But that is why it is an unfair system for some states to be free to change, and others not.

High schools teachers are also forcing their students to make sure the assignments they give out are finished by the end of break. And yes, some teachers can be harsh when it comes to the work load, but if a student had more time to do it, procrastination factors put aside (myself being guilty), they would at least feel more inclined and motivated to complete their tasks. There are many studies that suggest the workload in school in the long run can cause severe depression and anxiety, even increasing rates of attempted suicide from high school students across the country.

A study made in 2015 about stress and the coping mechanisms students use in high school showed that half of the high school students surveyed and interviewed were chronologically stressed (The Atlantic, High Stress High School). A research scientist at the New York University of Nursing named Marya Gwadz said below in her study:

"The results aren’t surprising—between the homework required for Advanced Placement classes, sports practices, extracurricular activities like music and student government, and SAT prep, the fortunate kids who have access to these opportunities don’t have much downtime these days. These experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives."

The fact that these psychological and physical effects after high school that may affect us throughout our college years and beyond, baffles me. I firmly believe that we need to change this aspect of the high school system as a start to make way for not just better education, but better environment for the students. Progress needs to happen soon for many aspect of today's schools and education in the United States, and this would be a great start we need for the sake of a student's health and well-being. I could mention the ridiculous early hours students from high school have to wake up to go to high school compared to college, but I'll save that for another time. I wish every college student out there the best of luck in their spring semester, and I would like to end this on a quote by my fellow Odyssey creator Marisa Faller:

"See, that's what I always wanted. A week and just a feeew more days. I always used to say that."