School, work, jobs, family, clubs, these are only a handful of the responsibility’s teenagers have to deal with every day. While some students may not be taking as difficult classes as others, the pressure school puts on all students can be overwhelming. However, some students are able to turn this pressure into routine. Junior Jason Kim takes his schedule very seriously, so he never has an excuse to fall behind. “When I get home, I check Canvas to see what I have to work on, I usually do around three hours of homework since I’m taking three AP classes. After I do my homework, I go to the gym and come home around an hour later. When I get home, I relax and sometimes I have to plan stuff for my club [Key Club],” Kim said. 

While Kim may be able to have routine every day, many high school students struggle with balancing their workload correctly. Some huge factors to this are phones, mental health, jobs, family, or even physical health. The main problem students face today is low mental health. Students need to become more disciplined in order to create and utilize a good routine that builds around their existing schedule. Junior Leah Cole recognizes this struggle as a past reality when she was attending Cascade High School, “I used to be really unmotivated for school and when we had homework and stuff I never really did it, I just didn’t see the point and it’s hard to do something when you don’t see it as worth it.”

For Cole, her mind had already decided that the homework she needed to do was never going to be worth it. When a situation like this is presented, the thought of even being disciplined is thrown away. So, she made a change. Cole decided to turn everything around by switching to Glacier Peak last summer, “After the first day, I already knew it was better than Cascade.”

Changing schools wasn’t what made Coles’ mind shift into a brighter manner, but instead the change in environment. She was able to place herself in an environment that is supportive, friendly, and competitive. She finally felt like her school cared about her which allowed her to think about school in a different way. “When I switched to Glacier Peak, I felt like everyone was so nice, compared to Cascade the vibes are just way better,” Cole said.

Cole was finally able to dig herself out of the hole she was in and ultimately able to juggle what she used to dread. A change in environment is an amazing way for students to gain a different perspective on school life and be able to stay disciplined in times of adversity.