Kimaya Khurana | Week 11 | Taking a Second
I think sometimes we just take life for granted.
Especially being in the midst of junior year, and with the only things keeping us going being solely for college, like stacking up extracurricular activities, ensuring an A in every class, finishing volunteering hours, and honestly, that’s it.
Recently, this has been getting to me, leaving me drained and exhausted all the time. But this isn’t what life is only about.
My dad always tells me to “enjoy life to the fullest” and how his “high school days were one of the best.” Everyone also tells me to soak in my teenage years, as you won’t get them back.
And honestly, that put this into perspective: Yes, junior year is one of the most important years of our lives to solidify our futures. And yes, at this moment, grades may be “everything.”
But it's also important to look around us and realize how much more there is.
You don’t get time back. Every second, every moment, it's gone in the blink of an eye. You can’t dwell on it or spend more time wishing you'd done things differently; once it's done, it's done. And something which I especially don’t want to do is live in regret that although I had made my “american dream” (got into college, being successful) I wished for more opportunity to honestly just live.
Taking walks every once in a while, looking at the nature around us, and breathing in the fresh air we are privileged to have are all important to recognize.
Life isn't supposed to revolve around school; it's about doing things that make us happy. In my opinion, that’s how we utilize this opportunity. Not by forcing ourselves to endure stress (yes, this is important), but by learning to manage our time so we can do much more than just get buried under schoolwork.
With all this being said, I am definitely excited for the four-day weekend to finally get a break, and especially summer.
Image Credit: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/well/move/walking-after-eating-blood-sugar.html
Kimaya I think your blog came at the perfect time for me. I for one, absolutely despise second semester. My grades always get worse, school always gets overwhelming and I genuinely have no idea how I am supposed to study for 5 AP exams this semester. I find myself in a slump of some sorts. I stress about not getting enough work done, or not applying to enough internships, or not studying enough, and my stress then leaves me stagnant unable to complete any work as I simply spiral. I honestly find the statement that your teen years are your best a little unbelievable, considering my teenage years have been grueling and rough at their best. But, junior year has made me a little sentimental and I appreciate your optimism, but the stress is not going anywhere. Even after we get into college, after we finish our internships and land those jobs we all want the stress will remain in our lives. So we have to learn to appreciate it. I like to think about the children in other countries who would kill to be under the pressure we are, surrounded by the opportunities we are given. I like to think of the grueling work our parents put in so we can live better lives than they did, which makes the pressure a little more worth it. Thank you for sharing, I found your blog refreshing and a nice way to start my Monday.
ReplyDeleteHow could we not take life for granted, if it has been with us our whole lives?
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, I have noticed that a significant portion of the people in our cohort decided to write about the stresses of junior year last week, and connected them to the choice to live in the moment. We are stuck in a weird paradox of wanting to live now, in the present, but once there’s free time we decide to get ahead on what needs to get done the next day and it never ends, because tomorrow we have new things to do and new things to get ahead on.
I am often taken aback by people who say that their extracurricular activities and the things that “keep them going” are “solely for college;” I know it may seem as though there is little time for anything else but do so many people really not have hobbies? Or is anything not deemed profitable disregarded nowadays?
But I digress. I see you too are still thinking about the American Dream essay, and the fact that there is something missing from the Dream which has been advertised to us and our parents; namely, as you put it, the “opportunity to honestly just live.” And, going back to the American Dream essay sources, is junior year really “one of the most important” of our entire lives? If the value of getting a higher education is shrinking and as we as a generation are, more and more often, turning to immaterial sources of fulfillment, would our lives really be over if we mess up a little during our teenage years? I say there will still be time to fix it, and that is worth keeping in mind.
Good job on your blog!
Hello Kimaya. Honestly, this junior year stress thing was really getting to me last semester. Like you said, this year is going to cement our ability to get into a good college and eventually a career. I was really stressed out last semester, so much that I was starting to get white hair (6 from this class and counting) which was not cool. I was a victim of the Indian aunties telling me to stack up all the AP classes as it would help get into a good college and how they brainwashed me into taking this class (just joking...mostly). Over break, I realized being stressed out like this feels really awful, so I took a quote from Richard Feynman from heart, "Doing it for the fun of it." This new philosophy change allowed me to reduce the junior year stress and started to enjoy learning at school.
ReplyDeleteThe one salient thought that has been haunting the back of my mind and lording over my every action is always related to college. I’ve had my entire life planned out since I was in middle school; it’s received miniscule changes here and there but the overarching theme has never really changed. I’ve always known who I wanted to be, and this is such a critical time in my life that I feel like there’s never any time to rest. It’s hard to be a teenager when I’m already an adult in my head. Especially so when it tells me that I’m lazy for resting. Of course, I know that I’ll never be this age again and that this is probably going to be one of the more carefree times in my life considering that I don’t actually have to focus on adult responsibilities just yet. I also know that my problems are small and are of infinitesimal consequence considering that there are much bigger problems in today’s world. This rock that we all share is going to keep spinning regardless of some privileged teenager’s woes, and I try to remind myself of that when it feels like the walls are closing in.
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