Sunday, December 7, 2008
Pressures Pushing Us To Our Absolute Limits
Henry David Thoreau addresses his writings to those who are "dissatisfied" with their lives. Even after the evaluation of the typical day in the life of a New Trier student, I believe I would categorize myself as "satisfied" with the life that I live. After the class discussion of New Trier's pressures to live a life full of academic, athletic, artistic extra curriculars, etc., I decieded to make a list of my own schedual, which is something that surprisingly enough, I have never done. I found that the "typical" student's day very closesly resembled that of my own: the early mornings, academically filled school day, physically and mentally tiring extra curriculars, large amounts of homework and miniscule amounts of sleep. How I am able to accomplish school, sports practice, voice lesson, ACT preparation tutoring, homework, and a sufficient amount of sleep in one day, is beyond me, but I have been doing it for so long that I do not even think twice about it. It is engrained into our minds at a very young age that the only way to be successful later in life, is to work ourselves to our absolute limits throughout highschool and college. But is this so wrong? I cannot decide whether the evaluation of my daily schedual has been beneficial or just disadvantageous for myself. Although I am aware that my highschool days are supposed to be the best part of my life, what is the hurt in working harder now so that I can live a more comfortable future. The pressures that students are dealing with at New Trier are, in my opinion, only going to help us succeed in the real world (if you consider being well-educated, and financially well-off to be success).
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1 comment:
Nice post Heidi!
I fully agree with your thoughts at the end of your blog: work hard now, and have a better, more comfortable life later. Sometimes my parents ask me why I stay up so late after sports practice doing hours homework with minimal breaks. They sometimes even have to encourage me to take little breaks to get away from all the stress that comes with being a high school student. However, in most cases I end up telling my parents that I need to continue the stressful life that I, along with many other students live, so that I can get into a "good" college, get a "good" job, and then be less stressed in my future life. However, recently I was thinking about the exact point in my future that this stress is suddenly going to leave. I keep telling myself that if I work hard now, my life won't be stressful later. But when is the stress going to go away? I would argue that maybe unless people begin to simplify their lives just as Thoreau suggested, the stress may not ever go away.
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