As the school year quickly progresses, more and more assignments pile up. Students find themselves in the whirlwind of balancing seven classes, sports, clubs, jobs, a social life and other activities. This can become overwhelming and troublesome for students.
Currently the world seems more focused on perfectionism and over-achieving, which can lead some students to think they are failing, when in reality they are doing just fine. Staff have noticed this coming from their students and hope to help alleviate some of the stress.
Teresa Yakel, Social Studies teacher, believes that there are many things that contribute to the stress of students. Even though many thing cause stress, the stressors aren’t the number one issue at hand.
“The stressors themselves aren’t always the issue, but more so how we handle the stressors. Poor sleep, ineffective study methods, and mismanaged time can all prevent students from successfully navigating stress in their lives,” Yakel said.
Allowing the bothersome things in life to take over can lead to all sorts of problems. According to an article published by Harvard University in 2022, approximately 83 percent of high school students claimed that school itself was causing the most stress. Since there is no way to get rid of school to eliminate stress, there are other ways to combat it.
Natalie Weltman, senior, considers herself a high stress student. She is involved in lots of extracurricular activities that she is passionate about, and has taken on a hefty workload in her academics.
“I have two classes at the high school, and then I go home and I do my online course work for my college classes,” Weltman said. “And then Tuesdays and Thursdays, pretty much all day is reserved for my internship, but then at night is when I do any extra homework I have from college and high school classes.”
Many students are active in extracurricular activities during high school, because they’re passionate about them and it looks good on college applications. Stress is also caused by social factors such as a fight with a friend, or thinking about fitting in.
“I’m involved in a lot of different clubs and activities in school. STUCO vice president. I’m president of Students For Life. I’m a SWAT leader, which is our Bible club at EHS. I’m in National Honor Society, National Society of High School Scholars, HOSA, and National Society of Leadership and Success at Saint Louis Community College where I take half of my classes online, and so it’s definitely a lot of course work there,” Weltman said.
Weltman says that her stress causes her to not get enough sleep; since she’s in leadership positions she feels the need to always be cover draft NO WORDSprepared to serve others and make sure they’re okay. She uses many different coping mechanisms and has found something that works well for her.
“Once a week, I like to take 3 hours completely by myself on a little outing. And it doesn’t have to be expensive or anything,” Weltman said. “But whatever that is, go on a walk and I’ll be completely alone or I’ll just, like, go sit somewhere by myself or walk around somewhere by myself.”
Time management is an important life skill that allows people to make the best of the time they have. This is es- pecially important for people who have busy schedules. Setting out specific times to do specific things allows for students to feel less crammed when things are getting hectic.
Sydney Kiefer, senior, has learned how to balance her school life with her social life to make the most out of the free time she has.
“So when I manage my school life, I like to make sure that I save time for my home life, but also for me. So at school I use study halls and AcLabs, where I could be spending time with my friends. I use it so that my schoolwork is not so overwhelming,” Kiefer said. “I also like to schedule my Sundays where I work on schoolwork half the day and the other half I spend time with my family and friends so I am not too overwhelmed.”
Counselor John Wunderlich is a strong believer in the benefit of good time management. The school provides many different resources for students to use if they need some extra help or time to finish an assignment.
“I think utilizing our AcLab programs, making sure that they’re working, collaborating with teachers,” Wunderlich said. “Or utilizing thecounseling office to come and maybe just take a break or talk through a situation.”
Students have found healthy beneficial ways to manage stress such as getting extra sleep, taking a walk, and listening to music. On the other hand, there are some unhealthy negative things teens do to handle their stress. According to a Truth Initiatives 2021 survey, 1 in 2 teens who vape said it is used to manage their stress and anxiety. 90 percent of teens who quit vaping said that they felt less stressed than when they were using nicotine.
Contrary to the popular belief that vaping lowers stress, Quit.org states that vaping increases blood pressure and heart rate causing the heart to pump blood much faster than it is used to. This is negative because it causes your body to fall into the cycle of spiked heart rate, dopamine rush, and then withdrawal. Head Principal Corey Sink is aware of some ways students may try to handle their stress, such as vaping, drinking, drugs and other harmful things.
“I think there’s some outside influences, like what are your friends doing? Are you around this sort of thing? You know, what’s going to lead you to using drugs, vaping or maybe behaving in a certain way? Or versus choosing things like, ‘I’m going to work out, or I’m going to get more sleep, or I’m going to eat better, or I’m going to try to do healthy things to deal with the pressure,’” Sink said.
Another major thing that some high school students take on is sports. Whether the student is playing for fun, to get exercise or to play at the collegiate level, succeeding in a sport can cause major stress. Since they have to balance both schoolwork and athletics, not to mention jobs and other extracurricular activities. For senior soccer player, Lucas Valenti, he finds that clearing his head is the best way to alleviate stress.
“I put on my airpods, get some fresh air, read a book, and get a glass of ice cold water,” Valenti said.
While sports can be a major cause of stress for some students, it can also be an outlet for others. Sports can be used as a coping mechanism to forget about the things that are weighing on a students life and just play. Therese Di Valerio, senior, uses sports as her stress reliever. Even though she takes on difficult tasks such as; editor of the yearbook, a part of E!Crew, Sparkle Squad, and three competitive cheer teams.
“I feel like cheer relieves any stress I have,” Di Valerio said.
While a few people in general have minimal stress, others have lower stress at certain points in their month or even just week. From after finishing a test, after winning a big game, or even just finishing an assignment that kept getting put off. People can go back to a low stress life when just one little stressor is gone.
“I’m not really stressed since I have finished all my tests the past few days and I feel so much better now that they’re over,” Freshman Dani Hanouw said.
Fortunately, Eureka High School has a support system of counselors, social workers, staff and admin who are determined to make the teenage years as smooth as possible. Counselors have different ways to help students through whatever is causing them issues.
“One of the positive things about Eureka, I love that students can come in and receive interventions immediately and coping skills and some strategies to help them manage that. If you’re feeling stressed in the middle of a class, our body actually responds to stress before we recognize it in our mind,” Jessica Williams, Gifted resource teacher, said. “So when you start to notice it in your mind, your body is already responding to that stress. So taking a few very deep breaths slowly and exhaling, deep breath in slowly, exhaling slowly can be very helpful. Ask a teacher to take a drink of water and certainly come to the counseling office.”
There are many things that the school as a whole can do to be more open to individual struggles.
“I think the more that we can make this a place where everyone feels like they belong, everyone has a space. Everyone is pulling for everyone else where you’re all in the boat rowing it in the same direction,” Sink said. “Then that may lower some stress that people feel. The solution is we just gotta take care of each other. Take care of yourself, each other in this place, and we have that kind of idea.”
