My name is Nate Levine, and I am going to tell you my extremely honest opinion about how you should handle high school.
Let me start by saying that I have done about 30 minutes of schoolwork outside of school over the last two years. This is not because I am lazy, my classes are too easy, or I have bad grades. Instead, this means I am efficient with my class time.
One thing that has helped me is my time on the Churchill Observer. The class occasionally acts as a free period to complete schoolwork I could not complete in class, which prevents homework.
I’m not this super smart kid or anything, but all you have to do in school is listen to the teacher and do your work as soon as possible. My work quality occasionally suffers because of how quickly I do it, and I fail to check over it for mistakes, but overall, this has been my foolproof way of succeeding.
I’m not recommending that you spend less time on work and decrease the quality of it, but I am recommending that you stop stressing over the “tons” of schoolwork you’re given because in reality. it is not that bad.
This year, I am taking AP Statistics, a class that usually leaves many students bogged down in work, but it should not be that way. When our teacher announces a homework assignment, I flip right to that page and do it. I don’t care if it’s due in a day, a week, a month, whatever it is; I finish it as soon as I can.
Some students push things off again and again and then end up with hours of homework on deadline days, which stresses them out more than it needs to. They paint themselves as the victim and like they’re being overworked, but it’s just their fault. Furthermore, their work quality is even worse because of how fast they have to jam in all of their assignments in one night.
In contrast, I rarely think about school outside of school because I just don’t have to. I’m not saying this to brag, I’m saying this to show that it is possible to have a balanced high school experience without sacrificing your grades.
I see so many of my friends stressing out about school, constantly complaining about how much work they have to do. But the truth is, if you just stay on top of your assignments and manage your time effectively, high school doesn’t have to be that overwhelming.
So my advice to you is this: take a deep breath, stay organized and just do your schoolwork as soon as you can. Don’t procrastinate and don’t make excuses — just get it done.
Trust me, it will make your high school experience so much more enjoyable. And who knows? You might even find that you have more free time than you thought.
Schoolwork should not take away from your high school experience, so don’t let it consume you. Take control of your work, take control of your time and most importantly, take control of your happiness. You’ve got this.
