As we head back from Thanksgiving break, I couldn’t help but notice all the complaints from students everywhere. I hop on Twitter and all I see are tweets about trying to get to winter break. Countdowns to the next time we won’t have school. It’s sad that I found myself agreeing with every single one and often retweeting them. It’s sad that we come back from a week meant to be dedicated to being thankful to an enormous amount of stress as finals come up and the semester comes to a close. I feel like it gets worse and worse every year.

I used to love school, nearly every aspect of it, but now I have to say the only thing I love is learning. I don’t love the stress as we try to pass our exams or the seemingly impossible homework assignments. I love researching about topics and giving speeches, but not having to worry about if the way I spoke was good enough.

I understand that some of these things we often stress about are just meant to prepare us for the future, but in what future do we have to take tests? I think it has been established that there is some sort of flaw in the school system, but I’m not exactly sure what, nor do I have a solution to propose to fix it. I do however know that there are plenty of other things to put your energy into besides worrying about your next test. I’m not saying don’t study, I’m just saying don’t spend all your time worrying about not getting the grade you want.

“If it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t spend more than five minutes being upset about it”

That is a quote that I repeat to myself often. Every time I get upset about something I ask myself if it’s going to matter in five years. Nine times out of ten the answer is no, so I try my best to move on. When you look at life through that lens, it becomes a lot less stressful.

Some days, whether I’m having a particularly good day or not, something will happen that will make me realize how thankful I am to be right where I am right now. Most days it’s the sky. It never fails me with its beauty, often at sunset but sometimes at random parts of the day. Other times I’ll be laughing with friends and think about how I met them and how lucky I was to meet them. My mind will quickly wander and realize so many things have come together to put me in this exact spot.

God, the world, whatever you choose to believe in, works in strange ways, but it’s always for a reason. The next time you’re feeling down, upset, or anxious, take a moment to think about how you got here and how amazing that little fact is.