Semester Overload

students start to face the challenges being a second semester junior brings

With second semester running in stride, students have begun counting down the days until summer, but juniors have other plans in action.

For them, it isn’t what their fellow school-mates experience. They’ve got constant reminders of AP tests, ACT exams and colleges seeking applications from qualified contenders.

With all this build up, juniors are finding how easy it is to become overwhelmed.

“Everything’s just kind of thrown on you junior year,” junior Lexi Dunn said.

Dunn said she misses relaxed situations she experienced during her first semester, and finally realizes how different the second semester is than she expected it to be.

“This semester, it’s much more heavy preparing for all the AP exams,” Dunn said.

Junior Alexis Dominic is also starting to confront the adjustments her second semester is bringing. She continues —  even now — to have trouble fathoming over how she’s going to be a senior next year.

“I think this is crazy because we were kids, you know what I mean?” Dominic said.

Trying to reset herself, Dominic said she has a system to help her manage her stress. 

“I bought a planner,” Dominic said. “So I’m gonna have all my deadlines in there.”

Dunn also is looking to rebuild herself this semester, trying to learn from last year’s mistakes.

“My goal is to take more notes,” Dunn said. “I just want to be more prepared.”

However, what these juniors weren’t ready for was giving up their own personal free time. With all the new quizzes and assignments, managing school and personal activities has been proven to be a challenge.

“Finding time to study even though there’s also a lot of stuff going on in school is definitely stressful,” junior Reese Burgener.

Dunn echoes Burgener’s concerns, mentioning how school is taking up more of their life than it should be.

“I have a job,” Dunn said. “So then at my job I’ll have to do homework because I just don’t have time after.”

On top of all this, these students are beginning to acknowledge the challenge that is college.

“You have to start really thinking about college,” Burgener said. “And so I think that takes a lot of time.”

With schedules in mind, Dominic said finding the time to tour colleges with the loaded amount of coursework has been deemed challenging. She, like many students, is having trouble picking a career path.

“I don’t even know what I want for breakfast,” Dominic said. “Let alone what I want to do as a career.”

But what lies closely ahead for these students is senior year, dangling in front of their eyes.

“Everyone’s taking hard stuff [now],” Burgener said. “Because they want their senior year to not be crazy.”

But these last few months of junior year is what’ll be the ultimate home stretch as Dunn and her classmates scroll through its possible outcomes.

“This is my ACT year, which will tell me what college I’ll get into,” Dunn said. “Which will tell me all this other stuff.”

Keeping all this in mind, juniors try to do their best in what’s known as the most important year in their high school career.

“There’s a lot going on to be the applicant for college,” Dominic said. “Just getting through the year is all that matters.”