Procrastination is to prolong or delay an action. Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Somehow people are quick to use these two words interchangeably as if they share the same definition.
Large portions of high schoolers claim to be under a tremendous amount of stress. While it is true that as teenagers our lives do involve stressful situations, we must be careful of using stress as an excuse for every difficult situation, especially when it is our lack of preparation that has made the situation difficult in the first place.
It is a well-known fact that Westminster has an intense curriculum. Thus, it is no surprise that majority of the students here would describe their school schedule as stressful. However, it is also well known that some students, including myself at times, bring unnecessary stress on ourselves by waiting until the night before to study for a huge test or write a six-page paper.
After an intense school day, sports practices, work, and homework it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. There have been many of nights where I’ve felt like passing out from a work overload. Sometimes to students it does seem as though teachers have waited to pile a massive load of tests, projects, and homework into one week. This is a perfect example of a typical stressful situation in the life of a high school student.
Although, at first thought stress sounds like a bad thing, sometimes stress is actually needed to motivate us. While it is true that too much stress is unhealthy, there’s nothing wrong with being a little stressed. Sometimes we need stress to light a fire under us or give us a boost. I agree that there are some very stressful times in high school but I think sometimes we just have to suck it up and do it. The workload and the stress that we complain about in high school is only a glimpse of what’s to come in college and in the real world. Instead of using the “stress card” when times get tough, we should focus on some alternatives.
Time management and multi-tasking is key when trying to avoid overly stressful situations. No matter how much we complain, groan, plan, or organize, stress is here to stay. As students we can strive to lessen the amount of stress we’re under as much as possible but at the end of the day we just have to analyze how we get into these situations. This means remembering the fine line between procrastination and stress. Be prepared, remain calm, and remember God never puts more on us than we can handle.
Cordially,
Christian