My Own Experience

Before going to high school I was always excited for the idea of high school with the thoughts of what most kids had:

“I’ll make so many new friends.”

“I’ll get to go to so many parties and school events.”

“High school will be so fun and cool.”

But during freshman year all I could think about was when will the next 3 years be over. I was swamped in homework everyday, and wouldn’t be able to pass my tests or quizzes. My parents worked so hard to get me to just do better in school. I had so many other extracurricular activities too, I was doing guitar lessons, playing for the school tennis team, ASB, and tutoring for 5 hours a day.

I was stressed and depressed to the point where I was called up to the school psychiatrist because of my mental health.

My parents never believed in the idea of mental health saying that it was just a “form of weakness” and grew up with the idea that “Asians don’t get depressed” until I had to start therapy and was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. I hated therapy, it was just another hour that I had to take off of doing homework so I dreaded the hours that I would have to go, and that’s when I realized that I’m letting school and homework take over my own life and let it control me rather than me controlling it.

Many students experienced burn out as a senior (senioritis) and here I was experiencing it in the middle of freshman year.

That was the point I realized that I needed to get my act together and not try not burn myself out as a freshman.

Trying To Be Better

It would be a lie that I had one thing that all made me more in control and better. It was a process that I had to go through that I had to fix on my own, so I started putting more effort into school. I started to study more and pay more attention in class which helped with tests and homework. With that school started to feel less heavy and I didn’t feel like I was drowning.

With all the improvements my grades started to see a change as well, my grades were better and I felt more confident in my academics. This year as a sophomore I am trying my best to still be on top of my school work and be in control of my own grades.