My junior year in high school is pretty much halfway over. This is a terrifying fact. Being a junior is really, really hard: "I don't know where I want to go to college yet," "yes, I am aware that I have to take the SAT/ACT ASAP," "why yes, I'm only stressed one-hundred percent of the time." The never-ending questions, reminders and school work is like a giant, continuous stress-nightmare. I'm sure it's all going to end up great, but for now, I am allowed to complain about just junior things.

1. Your parents, teachers, and pretty much everyone else you seem to know constantly reminds you about the SAT/ACT.

Yes, we are aware that the SAT/ACT is our ticket into college. We also know that colleges require community service, stellar grades, leadership positions, great character and your history of past occupations and about a million recommendations. Please, oh please, stop reminding us that it exists and our whole lives depend on this test. We get it. We know.

2. You are stressed eight out of seven days of the week. Always.

Stress is a junior's BFF. We have tons of little "tabs" open in our minds about all the work/events/schedules we have to keep track of. And yeah, sometimes we have those occasional "Dear God, I-hate-everything-school-is-to-hard-I'm-going-to-cry-and-give-up meltdowns". It's normal...and very stressful.

3. Sleep is a myth.

Is sleep that thing where your body gets to shut down for a few hours and relax? Yeah, never heard of it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go stress over more school work and college questions.

4. "Where do you want to go to college?" Like really, you have to stop.

Like really, you have to stop.

5. Your social life seems to disappear.

As a junior, you become your own best friend...and the two of you work together on everything. Time is also not an actual thing as a junior, so your social life can suffer. With everything going on 24/7, it is a struggle to find friend time and let loose a little, which honestly sucks. Like a lot. But who needs friends, right? Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahaha (we do. we really, really do).

6. We all have pulled that all-nighter to finish that essay, man.

With all the essays, worksheets, projects, and whatever else seems to be conveniently due tomorrow, might as well just stay up all night to get it done, right? Who needs sleep? Apparently not juniors.

7. College tours are a beautifully torturous adventure.

Wow! Beautiful campus, nice people, the idea of freedom all around you...yeah, college tours are great. Everything is so unfamiliar and new, which I'll admit it is kind of exciting. But college tours are also very overwhelming and hard to fit into our busy schedules, especially since juniors already have the pressure of getting their GPA high enough for the colleges they actually want to go to.

The life of a junior is hard, frustrating, and overall a stressful mess. We are expected to do a lot in such a short amount of time and make some pretty tough decisions all on our own. But even with all the pressure, I am excited to see what the future holds for me, and I know that I have good friends to keep me company and journey with me on this crazy adventure. This is the year I will make serious choices of who I am and compare her to who I want to be...it's exciting. I'm looking forward to it.

Stress less, fellow Juniors.