Challenger

Pressure. Stress. Deadlines. Time. When it comes right down to it, life is complicated and scary! I sometimes feel like I’m being attacked by all those things! I’ve been there, done that, and even received a t-shirt! (OK not really, but it sounded good!) But, when all these things seems the most difficult, you learn so much more.

Last time I wrote about being unprepared and the widely-known epidemic I call the monster. But other than that, teens deal with a whole lot more. Last year, I also wrote about how so many things can stress you out. Some teachers and parents don’t understand or realize how much stress we have. On the contrary, some of us students still don’t understand why. Especially when it just terrifies most of us!

The reason: we can spread ourselves too thin without even realizing it. Most teens work all the time. I work 4-7 hours daily. Some people even work more than that! (Crazy, huh?) So that leaves us very little time to do anything else. Time is of the essence; ergo, time isn’t ever on our side. It goes by so fast when we want it to go slow, and so slow when we want it to fly by!

Pressure makes us seem more pushed than ever before. The most wretched thing I’ve seen is how pressure influences the way we all act. I believe for a fact that I am like a balloon ready to pop when I’m under a lot of pressure. (Trust me, it’s not a good sight!)
Another, not so good sight, is taking a look at the Challenger staff. Deadlines are a kicker! “The Phelan” as we call him, will call you out in reference to deadlines. The word we know as deadline makes all of us a little woozy, especially if your article isn’t finished! We all know what kinds of problems exist when you’re not finished with something that is due...umm...right guys?

For the rest of us seniors, on top of everything else, we have PORTFOLIOS!! Another scary thing. If it isn’t finished, we can’t graduate! We do want to graduate sometime soon! Where does it all end? NEVER! It will haunt us until we die, and follow us forever! (It seems a little intense, but isn’t stress like that?)
But, maybe if it weren’t intense, we may not get it done. My own, personal club I have, well, it’s postponed. One final word: Procrastination. This causes more, and much scarier pressures. Welcome to the dark side. Though, it’s not always that dark! I’ve had other bright or lighter sides.

Years from now we’ll all see how, though stressful, it was at this age. It is going to be the best years of our lives. It doesn’t seem like it now, but it will impact our lives. It’ll show us how we’ll see our children go through the same things as our parents have seen through us. (Coincidence? I think not!)

Like many of my peers, I do feel like I’m being attacked.Everyone may feel attacked some way or another.. But there’s no place to really find any one reason why this is. We just really need to grin and bare it. Get a grip on yourself! It’s hard to do, but that’s all we really can do. I’ve always said, “Don’t worry, be happy!”, but it’s not always the case. Just be yourself in this scary, crazy world! And watch out for “The Phelan”, coming to a classroom near you! (We love you Mr. Phelan!)