As some may say, high school is the prime of one’s life. It’s the age of parties, dating, spending time with friends, making memories to last a lifetime—NOT. That’s only how it seems to be in books.

In reality, high school students seem the most prone to having breakdowns over stress associated with school, grades, the pressure to exceed, and personal life. Maybe it’s not an everyday occurrence, but every once in a while, a teary-eyed, stressed out teenager can be seen walking to class, looking as if they’re at the verge of a breakdown.

The statistics are overwhelming. In a research study done on 24,000 high school students, 95% of high school students say they have cheated before due to the stress.

An anonymous senior said that AP Chemistry junior year was her toughest experience in high school. “I cried once or twice. It was after the first or second test that I majorly failed.”

Sometimes a class by itself isn’t that tough, but balancing it with six other classes is the real challenge. “I had to juggle my grades in six other classes, and my grade in chemistry went down drastically.”

When asked if junior year was the toughest year course-wise, she agreed.

Senior Raynel Nazario agreed with that. For him, junior was tough because of matters in his personal life. “I feel like junior year is when I had to grow up. I had to make a lot of decisions.”

In an environment where good grades, multiple extracurricular activities, and the pressure to get into a good college are stressed, it’s undoubtedly hard to balance a tough personal life with schoolwork.

“I don’t think the toughest part of junior year was the grades. It was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do and making those decisions. Personal problems got in the way of that, and all that pressure plus school just made me break down,” said Nazario.

Even some freshmen are starting to feel the pressures of everyday high school life. An anonymous freshman said, “Even the first day of high school was overwhelming. It’s all these different variables. You have this pressure to do well in school and devote hours to homework. Then there are extracurricular activities. Everyone talks about how we have to get into a good college, but nobody seems to realize how stressed we are.”

While the need to perform well is valid, students at Seminole, as well as nationwide, seem to be cracking under the pressure of school and the constant voice over their shoulders telling them they need to perform well.

Does this mean that the school system needs to be reformed or students need to toughen up? Maybe the school system needs to be reformed. Maybe students need to toughen up. Maybe a little bit of both. Who knows?

Until then, all these students seem to have the option of doing is to hang in there. “I made it through junior year somehow. To those who are taking a tough class load: you’ll live,” the anonymous senior said.