Adventures of a High School Senior: A Normal Student

Wake up, go to school, pay attention, finish homework and go to bed. Three square meals, follow the rules. The recipe for a perfect student. It’s who everyone expects us to be. Our school, our parents.

A normal student can’t be perfect. We don’t always go to bed on time, sometimes we have to stay up late to study for that U.S. History test tomorrow. But we try our best to live up to expectations. We care about learning, but sometimes we learn more outside of the classroom.

Our parents and teachers forget about all the factors that affect our day. They forget that a lot of students don’t go home after school, or to work after school. Sometimes students don’t get home until after dinner. They forget about multiple siblings and single parents.

Our teachers forget that we have other classes. Our parents forget that getting a 4.0 GPA isn’t as easy as “just turning in the homework.”

College applications and finishing sports. Our GPAs and class rank. Football games and friends. It’s all floating around in our heads this year. It’s the balancing act that we are still trying to master.

When a normal student goes home, they need time to relax. To eat dinner and take a shower. But the first thought on every student’s mind is how much homework they have. How can I get this done? I don’t understand this!

I’m not saying that teachers should give us less homework, well, yes, I am. I’m asking teachers to realize that copying vocabulary words and writing essays in one night is not the only thing we have to do at night. Learning is the most important thing to teenagers right now. Whether it’s in Algebra or soccer practice.

Give us the time to learn through experiences other than staying up until midnight finishing chemistry. High school needs to be about more than do the work. We should feel excited to learn and excited to participate in school, not rushing to turn in the homework.