Sometimes it seems that teachers forget that students have things to do after school that are sometimes more important than homework. We often get assignment after assignment, but are these assignments helping me progress as a person, or deteriorating my mental health? School, chores, clubs, social time, after school job, then maybe homework? This is my day almost everyday. It’s like I never having enough time to do everything and get enough sleep to be able to focus the next morning.

Many will say that those students should quit their jobs and focus solely on school, but many students don’t want to do that. It’s a nice freedom to earn your own money and have purpose at work. For other students, not having a job is simply not an option as they use their income to support themselves and even their families. Teens who have a part time job in high school tend to be more responsible, more progressive, use the money earned as college tuition funds, learn to manage their money early on, and tend to use the skills learned from that part time job later in life or in another career.

After school clubs look amazing on college applications, and help students express things they feel passionate about. Not all teachers take into consideration that many students go to clubs or athletic activities, and may not get a chance to spend hours completing an essay or doing one hundred math problems.

How would anyone survive high school without having at least one friend to rant their problems away to? Let’s face it, a lot happens in high school; we are human and mostly need some kind of socialization to keep us from losing our minds. Social life includes spending time with family. Our relationship with our family is important; it’s a big part of who we are. We shouldn’t have to neglect our social life just to dedicate all of our time to high school.

I feel like sometimes school causes us to lose parts of who we are, and it mentally can ruin a person. Running off a few hours of sleep, getting up for school, making it to first period, barely focusing on the class, just trying to get by, catching up on work that you didn’t have time to do the night before. For some students that’s how their day goes; maybe not for all, but it is important to notice that this does happen to students at least once a week, if not more.

Is there a solution for these students? Maybe. We could have later starting times, less homework, a lot longer periods of time for assignments, implement more mental health days, the list could go on. It’s different for everyone, and we have to start showing some kind of empathy for these students. We can’t forget that we don’t know what everyone is going through. I feel for the ones who genuinely stress about their mental health due to school and the chaotic time schedules they may have because I struggle to get everything I have to do done almost daily.