High school can be one of the most stressful times in a persons life, but is the stress worse in underclassmen or upperclassmen? Being in a new school can bring with it the stress of finding new classes and teachers, and making new friends. This can be hard for freshmen to deal with, however there are also many factors that can stress out upperclassmen as well. The pressure of getting good grades gets larger and larger as graduation gets nearer.
Many students, such as Freshman Amanda Montplasir, have acclimated well to high school and don’t feel much stress at this point in their education.
“High school hasn’t been too stressful yet…I think [my stress] will get worse because my classes will get harder,” said Montplasir.
Other students think that the beginning is the rough part, and things get less stressful as an upperclassman.
“Freshmen year was not too stressful for me because I didn’t try very hard, but once Sophomore year came I started taking harder classes, like AVID, and it really kicked my butt,” said Junior Julia Huston. “Now, in Junior year, stress doesn’t really affect me much because I got a job and learned how to not procrastinate.”
In a survey of all four grades at BHS there were a few different patterns. Of all freshmen and sophomores surveyed, the average stress level this year was a 6/10. However, for juniors and seniors, this number increased by 10% and is a 7/10 on average.
Every single student surveyed wrote down school as one of the major causes of stress in their lives. Quite a few students wrote down sports and families as big causes of stress as well.
Stress can affect different people in different ways and it really just depends on how people adjust to the pressures that come along in high school.
