By BRIANNA RADCLIFF / Guest Columnist

With any school year, there is the stress of being the “perfect student.” From work to extra-curricular activities, students have a hard time keeping up with all the school work they are responsible for.

When coming home late from the activities students are involved with, they sometimes come home to a pile of homework they still have to complete. Then they stay up late trying to make sure their homework is perfect.

Making sure that homework is not only complete, but that it is correct, is tiring on students. Waking up early to go to school and having to stay up late soon catches up with them.

There is also the stress that your parents put on you. Parents are continually making sure you have done everything, you are studying and you are keeping your grades up. Along with grades, there is also worrying about all the tests. Having seven classes a day, there are days you have up to four tests. There are guidelines to when teachers can give tests, but sometimes they also give quizzes, and those can be given any day. Students stress over studying for each subject and then worry if they can remember information for each individual subject.

The stress of being an involved student is enormous. Making sure that everything is done and done the right way can put a lot on a student’s mind. When a teacher is constantly giving homework or you are always taking notes in the class, the students seem to stress.

Students are always worrying that they missed important material or whether their test answers are right.

The stress of being a student is greater than most people think. Stress is playing a major role in many students’ lives and is affecting them greatly. Stress can cause a student to fail or not do as well as he or she could. Although we are still teenagers, we still have to put up with everything else and must learn to deal with those pressures and circumstances.

Coping with the stress is the hardest part. If you cannot take time off from your after-school life, you could also try talking to your teacher about it. Let your teacher know that he or she has been giving you a lot of work, and you haven’t been able to handle it all.

Another option is for you just to do your best and try to attempt your homework. Don’t keep yourself up late trying to finish it all. Also make sure you ask your teacher questions about your homework. That can relieve the stress of not knowing information.

We may only be teenagers, but we still feel pressures. Many times adults don’t believe that we are stressed out because, compared to the types of stress in their lives, ours seem so trivial. But they should remember we are still learning how to deal with adult experiences, and they need to give us a little break and help us through these stressful times.

Brianna Radcliff is an 11th-grade student at Pelham High School