The American Dream is about opportunity, yet in your high school career, it feels more about exhaustion and unrealistic expectations. The pressure of not only taking harder classes, but also doing well in them while balancing extracurricular activities like playing a rigorous sport or instrument, and attending multiple clubs.
The High school American dream that is sold to students may seem idealistic, but in reality, it is unhealthy. In movies, the high school dream is often romanticized, reducing students’ identities to those of a varsity athlete or a straight-A student.
In actuality, students are expected to achieve a perfect GPA while being in multiple AP/Honors classes and are expected to attend practice for their sport or become a part of a club leadership board after school. Once they get home, they are expected to head to their job before completing hours of homework after a long day.
Chasing good grades doesn’t mean you gain the knowledge you were meant to receive. Chasing wins doesn’t guarantee growth or love for a sport. Real success can be different for everyone, yet the system only allows you to believe in one path.
Students are constantly told to stand out on college applications because the ultimate end goal is to attend a high-rated four-year university and live out the college dream. Success shouldn’t be about being able to do everything at once.
This pressure is so normalized that my friends brag about how little sleep they’ve gotten, or how they had to pull an all-nighter to study. This should not be normalized. Teenagers, scientifically, are recommended to get eight-ten hours of sleep.
High school prepares students for independence through responsibilities like working a job or driving themselves to errands. However, the balance students are expected to manage now isn’t setting real expectations. Most adults eventually work a standard 9-to-5 job, and do not have to juggle school, a sport, work and complete hours of homework all in the same day.
When students start burning out, we are told to manage our time better. High school is supposed to be a time for learning and growth, but instead, we are led to burnout before we step into the “real world.”