If high school is a race, senior year is that 400 yards that tests the limits of mental stability but eventually results in the euphoria of accomplishment. It’s that painful stretch where you can see the finish line but only the truly talented and emotionally stable can survive while the rest of us are left behind, drying our tears with ACT practice tests and college applications.

First off, senior year begins before school even starts. Summer turns into cram sessions for the ACT and “final touches” to an application essay I never ended up using. On top of that, all that summer work sitting in an abandoned backpack in God knows where won’t do itself. And the slight glimmer of freedom from the desk is trumped by another “reminder 101” of yet another assignment I put off until the last week of summer. It’s all anticlimactic, really.

Having stress as high school students is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time until the first anxiety attack of the season kicks in. With all the honors classes and sports and clubs and activities to get involved in and applications and standardized tests and adults shoving their expectations in your way and maintaining a social life; it’s overwhelming.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “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). Even during the summer… teens reported their stress higher than what they believe is healthy (4.6 versus 3.9 on a 10-point scale). Many teens also report feeling overwhelmed (31 percent) and depressed or sad (30 percent) as a result of stress.” Schools expect us to go to class for seven consient hours, running us through the assembly line that we call education, then go to sports practice, then eat a balanced diet, hit up after school activities such as clubs or a job or tutoring for the ACT, come home to hours of homework and STILL get eight hours of sleep?

Reality check: school systems have changed a lot over the years. According to psychologist Robert Leahy, “The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.” School is quite literally driving us insane.

Bianca Roper

Don’t get me wrong. There is definitely a lot to look forward to about being a senior, but the responsibility of balancing the college admission process on top of the normal stressful high school expectations is overbearing.

We put so much emphasis on details in our resume, making sure every single highlight over the past four years is made clear to whom it may concern, only for it to be looked at among thousands of other applications where the admitter won’t remember a single detail about my hard work once lunch break hits. We have been told to “stand out” for the past four years, and in a lot of ways, that has gotten me far. But at the same time, I would like to know that all my hardwork and dedication to my school work will pay off in the future, and with tuition prices higher than ever and the job field a rough subject, that initial pay off is not a promise.

Let’s face it: senior year is hard. There’s no pretty way to describe the enduring struggle of first semester. It’s treacherous and mental breakdowns become a weekly routine; perhaps we all are doomed for the mental ward. But I would like to focus on that last semester. The one where the balancing act becomes easier when everything moves into place and we’re back to the freshman year basics of juggling only school and social life. We have to look for that peak of the rollercoaster, the final stretch of the race and maybe, just maybe we can get out of here alive and in one piece.