As high school students during this day and age, we are faced with constant stress and anxiety due to our workload and academic expectations. There is never a night where we are able to escape from homework and other school and life related responsibilities. Many of us juggle schoolwork, sports, jobs, volunteer work, and simple chores at home. It is almost impossible for us to manage all of this on top of normal human functions like sleeping, bathing, and eating. So why don't our parents seem to empathize with us?
Parents love to jump to the assumption that if we are smart students, no amount of work will be hard for us. Maybe the coursework isn't necessarily difficult, but it's impossible to avoid lengthy homework assignments and projects. They claim that being an adult is so much harder, but they are not aware that we are shaping our futures and that there is no time for failure. In addition, they also manage the possibility of quitting this volunteer job or sport, getting rid of that hard AP class, or anything else that is troubling us. While that would surely alleviate some stress, the American education system molds us to do as much as we possibly can without combusting to ensure that we make it into this college, get that scholarship, or simply become employed later in life.
We are made to feel awful for our failures. We have a terribly tough grading system that makes or breaks us throughout our high school years. Our parents grew up in a different time when college was easier to get into, you could become successful without college, and when college did not cost nearly as much. If we are unable to get good test scores and keep good grades, we struggle to find scholarships to cover the daunting cost of college. Unless we get a 4-year college education, chances are, we will be unable to find anything about minimum-wage employment. Even with a college degree, many students cannot find employment or internships.
So much is expected of us. We are exasperated from what is placed in front of us. Even though it may be a horrible exaggeration, our schooling system is basically saying "balance a million things at once and forget self-care because if not, you will never be successful in the real world". We are only one person. We can only do so much. It is important that our parents offer us empathy and sympathy because times are different. It is not as easy as it once was.
