Entering my junior year, adults and other high school students told me that this one is the hardest. They describe a year overflowing with mounds of homework, full of stressful exams and looming with the question of college.

Every year stress piles higher on my shoulders, and this year I have more on my plate than ever before.

Adults constantly give advice on how to be successful in school and in life. They tell you that you need to get a job, join extracurriculars, receive good grades and be an overall good person. I agree that all of these things are what teenagers should strive to do, but the pressure to do all of these at once is too much to handle.

The amount of homework I have each night can amount to three or four hours. I am balancing newspaper, NHS and Link Crew, yet I’m still not as involved as many students.

I know of students who balance multiple jobs, clubs and sports, and still manage to maintain straight A’s. Those people are pulling off a miracle, and more power to them because I personally am not able to balance all of that.

According to a study released by the American Psychological Association in February 2014, “Teens report that their stress level during the school year far exceeds what they believe to be healthy (5.8 versus 3.9 on a 10-point scale) and tops adults’ average reported stress levels (5.8 for teens versus 5.1 for adults).”

Thirty-one percent of teens also reported feeling overwhelmed, and 30 percent depressed or sad as a result of stress. More than one-third said they were fatigued or tired, and 23 percent said they had skipped meals because of stress.

Pressure and stress can cause high school to be a much worse experience than intended. Any sort of social life is impossible when your workload constricts you of any opportunity to do so.

It can be difficult to handle the pressure. However, how a person handles stress matters. Personally, I set small goals for myself, so I can feel like I have done something significant each time I finish a task. Keep track of your assignments and only commit to activities you truly care about. Prioritize. Sanity is more valuable than one more line on an academic resume.