Going into high school, many teachers stressed the importance of success and achievement while being a student there. They would say things like “Take high school seriously; it's the only chance you have to discover yourself” and we would just sit there rolling our eyes while they are monologuing, knowing that high school wouldn't be a walk in the park. They would share anecdotes from their high school experience expecting us to find some comfort in the fact that they were successful which somehow means that we would be too. 

What they failed to mention during their five-minute monologue was that oftentimes in order to see success throughout high school, you would have to sacrifice pieces of yourself that are essential to reminding you of your adolescence. 

Being accomplished in high school is equivalent to skipping right through your teenage years and straight into adulthood where everything is much higher stakes. You're often going to forget you are a teenager because you are balancing a workload far more substantial than most adults in the building. From picking the perfect extracurriculars that make you look involved in the community, to fighting your way to the top of your class and leaving behind your friends who don’t share that same drive, it’s all sacrifices we are told to make for our own success with a smile on our face. Ad And if we are lucky, will be repaid at the end of senior year. No amount of success is worth your youth or peace of mind.

As reported by the Dave Nee Foundation, “Between 20% – 30% of adolescents report symptoms of depression. While depression once was considered an “adult” affliction, the mean age of onset today is 15.” “9 percent of high school students attempting suicide in the past year.” 

In accordance, Admissionsly reports that for the 2021-2022 school year, “Combined, private and public schools will host a total of 15.1 million high school students.” Meaning of those 15.1 million students, about 1.359 million them have reported their attempted suicide in the last year, chances are that the pressure from school did not help their mental health situation. This data shows that the expectations put on high school students are far too great for anyone aged 13-18 to manage, not to mention, the addition of outside pressures that come from families for their children to succeed make it impossible for a high school experience to feel worth the work. 

Students who are not willing to sacrifice pieces of their youth are often called lazy, lost, or all different synonyms for ambitionless. In reality, they have made the fair assessment that no success is worth the lifelong effects that daring to reach for it would give. Those of us who do reach, most of the time, end up falling just short of achieving the dream we have been working toward for the past four years. 

Success in school should not be a commodity that is limited to certain students. Investing in success shouldn't have to be more damaging to a person's state of mind than beneficial to building their character and personality.

It goes without saying that the importance of learning how to work hard is instrumental to having a chance of success, but it shouldn't feel like selling a crucial piece of your character development in order to achieve it. People use the word “high schooler'' so often subconsciously because it takes away all connection to being human. It’s almost a substitute word we use to justify the expectations we put on students. All the time teachers use phrases like “ As a high schooler, you should be able to…” when in reality, anybody put under that level of stress and pressure would burn out or give up.

Society as a whole needs to better support students by stopping this notion that it’s normal to feel so mentally drained after four years of high school. Success does not come in one shape or form, and it’s time we let students determine what it looks like to them. Trials and tribulations throughout high school are normal but in spite of that, having a depression, anxiety, and suicide epidemic due to this concept of a uniform version of success that schools continue to further will cause so much more damage than we are capable of fixing.