Junior Year Stress

UNDER PRESSURE

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Juniors share their feelings on the supposed “most challenging” year of high school.

By Ethan Nguyen

Calel Devera is a junior amongst many this year who is faced with heavy loads of work and packed schedules while picking apart intervals of time in order to keep his front, a common experience that many can resonate with. This grade is entering their last few years at AHS, and will soon be approaching paths diverging from their normal lives and instead into a future called adulthood. But first, many challenges await students, as they enter what is rumored to be their most difficult episode during their high school career.

“I feel like, already, math and AP Physics have… not necessarily ruined my experience, but it’s made it difficult because sometimes at home I’d have to do homework and I’d have to prioritize… this and I’ll save [another assignment for] tomorrow because it’s less important. I’d have history homework due the next day, but I’d prioritize my math homework, my physics homework, and my psychology homework and I’d save that for the next day. And if I don’t do it, it would pile up.” Said Devera.

Students at AHS are nearly through their first semester, with varying pathways and drives to determine their fate. Colleges and schools hold high expectations upon students, ready to see what this generation holds. AHS’ juniors prepare for their futures through taking up additional rigorous Advanced Placement classes, opportunities to become leaders in organizations, fine arts classes, internships, and more. Every student’s path differs from one another with hard academics as one side of the coin known to many. Yet the same ideology is held upon them that junior year is the most difficult and overwhelming year of all four.

When people hear about junior year, the first thing that comes to mind would be building your transcript for colleges to review. Many students this year are balancing the schoolwork and responsibilities of different programs and classes, while at the same time are being met with high expectations from not only dream schools, but also those closest to them: their parents. The pressure of the school year and the difficulty that hard work brings is rumored to make this year the most difficult, an opinion the majority can agree with.

According to a survey given out to AHS’ Juniors, many have answered “lots of pressure” when given a scale of 5 to rate the pressure of parental expectations, with 55.6% answering 4 and above. When given a scale of ten on the stress of the year itself, 68.9% have answered seven and above, an alarming sign considering students have yet to even end their first semester.

Junior Ruijia Gu is no stranger to this final academic push, and has joined three AP classes and multiple organizations such as CSF and DECA in hopes of obtaining a high-end education, an experience many students this year can relate to. They recognize the difficulty of college due to the standards they and other students have set, and how that affects their school life for their junior year.

“Nowadays, going to college is very competitive, especially applying. And since we’re in the Bay Area, so many kids have stacked extracurriculars, stacked grades, so I think that it’s definitely more normalized to do more extracurriculars and normalized to have good grades. For me, I definitely want to get into a good college; it definitely influences how I treat my extracurriculars and how I treat my academics.” Said Gu.

The increasingly rigorous work ethic is a reality for many, but the statement that it is truly the most stressful experience so far is difficult to declare with such a diverse cast of students and academic ranges. Junior Bradey Handley is a student focused more on artistic passions and considers himself to be less of an extremist in school this year in terms of academics. He considers college to still be a good plan, though he desires a different future. Handley’s conclusion on this myth for this junior year takes on an approach focusing on individual academic performance.

“Yes, I think [junior year] is definitely stressful, but I don’t think it should be [true] for everybody. I had a bad start in the school year, I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t do too much of the work, and that caused me to fall behind and pile up all my work.… [But] if you do your work and be on schedule, you’ll be alright.” said Handley.

Gu takes a similar approach within their own judgment despite their large dedication to their college path, a surefire way towards loads of responsibilities, work, and busy schedules. They factor in different attributes such as motivation and time management contributing towards the potential difficulty and stress of this year, but ultimately decide that it doesn’t have to be.

“At the moment, I’m not that stressed I’d say. If you manage your time wisely and you’re on task, I think Junior year is not supposed to be super stressful.” Said Gu. “But when you start not managing your time and start losing motivation, of course it’s going to be stressful, [and] having that mindset will definitely stress you out and make you more anxious.”

Between these majorly contrasting backgrounds, there stands a midpoint both interested in academics, but also interest in the arts and other programs. Junior Rachel Chan is one of these students who strives both for academic challenge and success towards colleges, but also to pace herself and enjoy what junior year has in store outside of tests and studying through joining art, dance, and coding programs. She maintains this balance through evaluating what experience the class will bring for her highschool experience, as opposed to a total dedication to academics. Chan had followed her own preference and considered this year to not be exceedingly difficult, but pondered on how her performance and overall mentality at school would’ve been affected had she not done so.

“The APs offered this year weren’t very interesting to me, so I feel like if I took any APs other than AP [Literature], I [wouldn’t be] as engaged with the class so I’d probably fall behind. It would’ve probably been worth it to take more APs grade wise, but from a general interest level, I don’t think it would’ve made me very happy.” Chan said.

Juniors this year are challenging themselves and pushing the pedal towards a great future once their last years at AHS come to the final curtain. The consequences of these efforts bring numerous difficulties and things to stress about during this school year, which the majority can agree makes this year certainly one of, if not, the most difficult and stressful year. The academic strain is a common experience generally shared by numerous scholars attending this school. It can be argued by some, though, that individual desires, pacing, and subjectivity regarding school and the future are principal characteristics in what students make of this year.

“Everyone’s going at a different pace, so I think it’s wrong to generalize or to assume that everyone’s as intense.” Said Gu. “Not everyone’s going to have the same feelings as you about college, school, academics, and even just junior year… Everyone has something different they want to do and that’s okay.”

Junior Year Survey We surveyed 90 students in the 11th grade. Here are the results: