Being the older child means being the guinea pig, meaning you experience life firsthand and without any prior knowledge or advice from other family members. I am the guinea pig of my family, so I was in for a wild ride when I realized this past summer how much work I had cut out for myself. From an online class to two internships to summer assignments, I thought with the extra time I had from no longer going to school, I could properly take care of everything at once.

Firstly, I should have known that a summer class is a lot of work when it's a required course for graduating high school. I opted to take US History over the summer because I'm not a huge fan of history itself, but because I hadn't taken much time out of my previous summer break to take Health and Phys. Ed. simultaneously, I figured that the same would happen this year. Maybe I would take even less time each day to complete just one class by itself, I thought.

Well, I was definitely wrong.

The way that project and tests were spaced out was... not spaced out. There were huge assignments that would normally take days to complete which were due on the same days as tests and quizzes were meant to be taken. Not to say that there's no way to work ahead and give yourself a few days to do assignments for the future, but after a while, it's like the work does not stop coming.

Online classes vary in difficulty based on how much information is provided in the course, but US History is on the heavier end. I can't really complain too much because of the fact that I don't have to take AP US History, considered one of the toughest classes in high school, but I wish there was a way to slow down the class so I could have time to study for tests that were in fact crammed next to each other within a week.

The two internships I was a part of had varying degrees of work, but one of them was a summer internship that required input on my end every single day. I loved the work I was doing because I could easily comprehend what I was working on, but I needed to find a way to balance how much I was doing with the other activities I had immersed myself in, especially considering the fact that I had class to take in the morning.

The other internship, of course, is for Odyssey, and I don't see reason to complain because of how comfortable I've become with my schedule of submitting, editing and sharing. I think it might have become more difficult for me to go through the schedule at times mainly because of the sudden influx of work I've given myself, but for the most part, this was the least of my worries.

Finally, summer assignments piled on like there was no tomorrow. I'm taking a large list of AP courses that require summer assignments to be done by the beginning of the school year, and each one takes hours to complete each week. I'm excited for the classes I'm taking this coming year, but if we're being honest, the work I have to have done by the end of summer has discouraged me somewhat.

I love summer break only because I get to sit back and relax after nine months of going through assignment after assignment and dealing with classes that begin too early in the morning for me to even comprehend, but it seems that I haven't given myself enough breathing space to really get myself together before the toughest year of my high school experience begins. It's as if the stamina I've been trying to build up for myself in the spare time I have each day suddenly drains when I immediately get to working on the items I've made responsibilities these two months.

If you're thinking about bombarding yourself with work over the summer to cover all bases that you can't reach during the school year, remember that there's a point where you need to stop. Summer is about preparing for the upcoming year by relaxing, not by pushing yourself to the limit. That difficult competition you want to join may not be the best idea if you have online classes and/or a job, so know your priorities before you decide how to spend your summer.

Who knows? Maybe that's the best form of preparation for a difficult upcoming school year.