Let’s be honest. It is part of the Yorktown and Arlington culture that we all know and have grown up in to overachieve as much as possible in order to achieve that mystical “success.” Many students follow this predetermined doctrine for success to a tee, and that often includes loading up their schedules with as many Advanced Placement and intensified classes as possible.
Kids who take such challenging workloads also have to find time for extracurricular activities in addition to completing their mountains of homework every night. I play baseball, and in the spring (when AP exams take place) baseball starts to feel like a full time job; I often have games two to three times a week and three hour practices every other weeknight. With all of this on my plate, the extra work, quizzes, tests and essays from my AP classes can be brutal when they pile up. For me, the forgotten third wheel was often sleep; last year I rarely got more than six or seven hours a night.
The thing is, this experience was extremely worthwhile for me. While it may sound cliché or silly, my life during this extremely stressful time exemplified what life will be like in the future. Quite frankly, I’d rather begin to experience the kind of work expected in college now than go in unprepared and be blindsided by it.
My first experience with AP classes prompted me to challenge myself and take even more this year. To me, that is what school is about. If you are not challenging yourself, what is the point of even attending school? We learn by going through difficult situations and overcoming them, and taking a challenging course load is a good way to find out where your limit really is. At the same time, it is important to remember that there is no magic number of AP classes to bring you success. Everybody has unique academic abilities.
This is a difficult balance to maintain. It is very easy to put too much on your plate and succumb to the stress that goes along with it. Conversely, it is very easy to go too easy on yourself and underestimate your abilities and take too few difficult classes. Both are recipes for failure, one way or another.
It is very easy to overestimate your abilities and become overworked. Many students who load up on AP and intensified classes have experienced this, and thus have too much stress in their lives. These are supposed to be the fun and carefree teenage years. The unhealthy effects of stress on a teenager’s body are plenty and well documented; according to the American Psychological Association, high stress can “weaken the immune system and exhaust the body” in addition to being a leading cause of sleep deprivation.
Whenever I was hurt on the baseball field as a kid, my day often asked me, “Are you hurt or injured?”. “Hurt” meant that I was making the ailment out as worse than it actually was, and I could tough it out and keep playing. “Injured” was a different story. Like this, the difference between challenging and overwhelming classes can be hard to identify sometimes. If you know that your study habits are lacking, and you are stressed because you do not start your homework until 11 p.m. every night, quite frankly, that is your fault. I cringe every time I hear a student complaining about having their homework and stress levels, and goes on to say that they began working at midnight.
If you take the most challenging course load offered with knowledge of your shortcomings, you are digging your own grave. The work is not causing your stress, you are. I routinely witness this among friends and classmates and use their stress as a reminder to start my homework as soon as I can. Obviously, nobody is perfect, and I still have instances where I find myself wasting hours after school watching Netflix or texting instead of doing homework. However, the only way I manage to survive my challenging workload is to try to avoid these lapses. The cause of the large majority of stress and failure in school is procrastination and leaving too little time to do a good job on assignments.
If you know you cannot manage a challenging workload because of your poor study habits, then simply do not take one. It blows my mind to see students continually causing themselves so much distress. If you are in that situation, you either need to change your study habits or your schedule. It is fine to choose to diminish your schedule if that is what makes you happy; there are people that live happy lives that way.
However, I personally believe that the true measure of success is deliberately taking on challenges and overcoming them. There is no better feeling than overcoming your own doubts about your abilities and becoming a better and stronger person for your efforts.
I have found that many students resent the Arlington and Yorktown culture, which at its heart pushes students to do their best. Unfortunately, in many cases, students are pushed too far and expected to do too much, whether it be by their parents, educators or even fellow students. Once you know your limit and character, it is important to understand it and stop comparing yourself to others. The path that your parent, sibling or friend took or is taking to success does not have to be yours. Do what makes you happy, not what makes anyone else happy. Do not let anyone else influence your decisions on classes, grades or next steps after high school. Find your own path to success and embrace it.
