While our school years are typically considered to be fun and carefree, many young people harbour a lot of responsibility which makes life a lot more stressful. Between advanced classes, extra-curricular activities and responsibilities at home, many teenagers are burning their candles at both ends.
High school, especially in the senior years, can be frustrating. This is a time in the life of every young person in which they are preparing themselves for the real world.
Most feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with school work, getting good grades and all the extra-activities.
The YouthPaper caught up with two high school pupils to find out how they deal with all they have on their plates.
“I have school every day, which is like a job for me. I deal with friends and relationships, plus sports and pleasing my parents. Then I have to focus on doing well in my extra-curricular activities because obviously I want to give my best in whatever I’m doing,” says Shadae Naobes, a pupil from Windhoek Technical High school.
“It gets too much sometimes so I have learned to prioritise my time and to do the most important activities first, and I urge fellow young people to do the same,” she said. Shadae also added that she has learned not to stress much about her school work and chores as she has drawn up a schedule that helps her to manage them, and she always makes time to exercise as it keeps her focused.
Some pupils say they are actually looking forward to getting out of high school to escape from some of the stress that comes with too much school work.
“Peer pressure and social situations on top of school and household chores can make people my age very stressed because we don’t always know how to handle all our responsibilities. Trying to perform well in school and extra-activities can be a lot to handle,” says Wylles Ochurub from Kolin Foundation Secondary School.
“I can’t really wait to get out of high school so that I can escape some of the stress,” he said.
“But then that would probably not be the end of school work and chores, because I still have to go to university, so I guess it is just better to prioritise your activities well as a young person and to also get much rest as possible.”
Check out a few tips from The Youthpaper to help you balance your school work, household chores and extra activities.
Write down your responsibilites. List your classes, your school work for the day, sports activities, after school clubs and chores, etc. This will help you with time management.
It will help you to organise your school work and your activities
Consider which tasks are the most important to you and which ones are the least important. You could list your classes, homework, and chores as the most vital and the leisure activities as the most insignificant.
This way you won’t waste time on unnecessary things.
If it is time for you to do school work, do it. Take the break when it is time to do so. You will not finish everything on time if you do not follow your schedule.
Get your head in the game, and get back to being an excellent academic performer, star athlete as well as a exemplary child at home.
