Some of you may be disappointed to find that my article this week is not satirical, but I thought I could provide some insight on stress relief and dealing with the inevitable curveballs that life throws. I feel that I personally manage with stress well and I rarely let it get out of hand. Having been surrounded by the highly competitive environment of International Baccalaureate program in high school, I feel that my experiences have helped me deal with stress in a productive way. While I am always an advocate for prioritizing academics and getting good grades, I have come to realize that there are more important things. For one, self care should always come before school. Sometimes if I'm up late doing homework, I put it away for the night and go to bed. It's better get a good night's sleep and come back to it the next day rather than feeling like a zombie the next morning. Another part of my philosophy is to stop worrying about the future and live in the moment more. One day this week, the weather was really nice. It was warm and sunny after a few days of rain, so I decided to sit outside and enjoy the day for an hour or so rather than doing homework. In reality, there's always some kind of work that I could be doing and I would probably go insane if I tried to do every piece of work before I could enjoy myself. My thoughts on how to deal with stress are pretty simple. It's important to just a few moments to relax and live in the moment. Life can get pretty busy and hectic, but there are things that are just more important than school or work, like the relationships I have with others and putting my well-being before my school work. I am a firm believer that things generally have a way of working themselves out. When I think about a time where I was really stressed out, I usually realize that things turned out fine. Keeping this in mind generally puts me at ease. Remember, stress is only temporary. Happiness is necessary.