Me? Worry? Yes.
'Don't sweat the small stuff' may be the best way to relieve stress.
BY NADIN ANTONOVA, ANNIE GJINECI AND SOPHIE OJDANIC
J.Hop Times Editors
Classwork. Parents. Tests. Gossip, Relationships. Bullying. Getting to school. Getting to class. What to wear. We could go on.
Welcome to Stressville. You know the place. Middle school kids visit all the time.
Sometimes, we stay for weeks.
'Don't sweat the small stuff' may be the best way to relieve stress.
BY NADIN ANTONOVA, ANNIE GJINECI AND SOPHIE OJDANIC
J.Hop Times Editors
Classwork. Parents. Tests. Gossip, Relationships. Bullying. Getting to school. Getting to class. What to wear. We could go on.
Welcome to Stressville. You know the place. Middle school kids visit all the time.
Sometimes, we stay for weeks.
According to a report earlier this year in USA Today, “Teens across the USA are feeling high levels of stress that they say negatively affect every aspect of their lives.
“More than a quarter (27 percent) say they experience “extreme stress” during the school year, versus 13 percent in the summer. And 34 percent expect stress to increase in the coming year.
“Hard numbers tell us kids are more anxious and depressed now than they’ve ever been.’’
Now that’s depressing. The report also said stress can lead to poor grades, skipping meals, health problems, depression and all sorts of other bad things.
Here’s the amazing thing about stress. You control it.
Experts say stress is basically the anticipation that something will happen. Usually, it’s something bad.
We feel we’ll fail a test or say something stupid or miss our bus or get teased for what we’re wearing.
So the less you worry about things like that, the less stress you’ll have.
If only it were that easy.
“Students have eight teachers, so it’s hard to balance everything and still have fun,” said Mrs. Bresler, a math teacher at JHMS. “There’s just not enough time in the day to get every single thing done.”
Students deal with stress in many different ways — from listening to music to going out for a run. Some students said they are like ticking time bombs. They hold all of the stress inside, until they finally explode.
“Standardized tests, like the FCAT, really stress me out.” said Bayleigh Butler, an eighth-grader. Bayleigh is not alone. Most students at JHMS feel that standardized tests are the main reason they get stressed in school.
At points where stress has come to extremes, Mr. Smith, the social worker at JHMS, said students should contact a parent or guardian to help them through it.
And it’s not just students who are dealing with stress. Even JHMS principal, Mr. Brown, said he is stressed at times. “The biggest form of stress for me is meeting deadlines,’’ he said. “Being where I need to be when I need to be there, and not being able to be places that I think I should be because I’m scheduled to be somewhere else.”
Like it or not, stress is part of everyday life. How you handle it is very important.
Mr. Brown suggests students learn to prioritize. If students make a list of all the tasks they are supposed to do, it will be easier for them to manage everything because they are more organized.
“When you get to check something off your list,’’ he said, “you get to see how much you have accom-
plished.’’
And then there was this advice from Mr. Green, a campus monitor. “Don’t take things so seriously,’’ he said. “There’s always tomorrow. And at the end of the day we all want to be happy.”
“More than a quarter (27 percent) say they experience “extreme stress” during the school year, versus 13 percent in the summer. And 34 percent expect stress to increase in the coming year.
“Hard numbers tell us kids are more anxious and depressed now than they’ve ever been.’’
Now that’s depressing. The report also said stress can lead to poor grades, skipping meals, health problems, depression and all sorts of other bad things.
Here’s the amazing thing about stress. You control it.
Experts say stress is basically the anticipation that something will happen. Usually, it’s something bad.
We feel we’ll fail a test or say something stupid or miss our bus or get teased for what we’re wearing.
So the less you worry about things like that, the less stress you’ll have.
If only it were that easy.
“Students have eight teachers, so it’s hard to balance everything and still have fun,” said Mrs. Bresler, a math teacher at JHMS. “There’s just not enough time in the day to get every single thing done.”
Students deal with stress in many different ways — from listening to music to going out for a run. Some students said they are like ticking time bombs. They hold all of the stress inside, until they finally explode.
“Standardized tests, like the FCAT, really stress me out.” said Bayleigh Butler, an eighth-grader. Bayleigh is not alone. Most students at JHMS feel that standardized tests are the main reason they get stressed in school.
At points where stress has come to extremes, Mr. Smith, the social worker at JHMS, said students should contact a parent or guardian to help them through it.
And it’s not just students who are dealing with stress. Even JHMS principal, Mr. Brown, said he is stressed at times. “The biggest form of stress for me is meeting deadlines,’’ he said. “Being where I need to be when I need to be there, and not being able to be places that I think I should be because I’m scheduled to be somewhere else.”
Like it or not, stress is part of everyday life. How you handle it is very important.
Mr. Brown suggests students learn to prioritize. If students make a list of all the tasks they are supposed to do, it will be easier for them to manage everything because they are more organized.
“When you get to check something off your list,’’ he said, “you get to see how much you have accom-
plished.’’
And then there was this advice from Mr. Green, a campus monitor. “Don’t take things so seriously,’’ he said. “There’s always tomorrow. And at the end of the day we all want to be happy.”