Two weeks before school, stores start blasting their back-to-school deals, from backpacks to 5-pack notebooks. Your Hockaday Outlook inboxes begin to fill up. International students grudgingly begin to pack their luggages. Soon you exchange pleasantries with your friends in the retreat and the next thing you know, your APUSH teacher assigns 20 pages of reading while you struggle to draft a medium paper due next week.

There’s a huge discrepancy between summer and school; let’s face it, most of us dread returning to school. Back-to-school blues, ranging from elementary to college students, is a temporary feeling of anxiety that people experience while adapting to a new school year.

For high school students, going back to school is even more stressful. Fitting into friend groups, maintaining your GPA, and participating in various extracurriculars… the list is long. For juniors, there is the infamous JRP waiting for them down the road, and for seniors, the college applications are not too far away.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is no effective way to alleviate this stress. These are phases of our lives that we cannot avoid, and school is one of them. Back-to-school blues are momentary, and you will get used to the workload in no time.

For those of you who want advice from a “wise” junior, here are some tips.

Start your homework. When I sit in front of my homework, a wave of procrastination and dread hits me, and I get everything done but my homework. Cleaning my room or making spicy ramen noodles won’t finish my Chinese homework. Procrastinating adds up to your stress; finishing a homework will take off a weight on your shoulders, even just a little bit.

Talk to your friends or parents. Talking to people you are emotionally attached to will help you to calm down. They understand your situation, and will listen to you.

Come to school 30 minutes early. Forcing yourself to be at school early will help adapt to the environment quicker. Also, your brain will wake up earlier than usual, being more focused during class.

Take a walk. Constantly being surrounded by academic work will tire you out eventually; sometimes you just need to drop everything and refresh your brain with some clean air. Physical activity energizes your brain, and it will be up and running when you start studying.

Lastly, accept your fate. You know in the bottom of your heart school has already started, and you have a whole year ahead of you. You’ll definitely have your worst moments, but think about the developments in your academic, social and athletic fields accumulated at the end of the year. It will be hard, but rewarding.

Story by Eugene Seong

Photo provided by Flickr User jimmiehomeschoolmom