Have you ever heard someone say that high school was the best years of their life? A majority of the students now would disagree. 

A new Yale study states that three in four students report negative feelings towards high school. 

Every day the high schoolers here walk through the same doors, go to the same classes, sit in the same seats, and talk to the same people without daily or even weekly change. 

And that seems to rob the motivation from a lot of us. We wake up early every day with the thought of doing the exact same thing we did the day before. Where is the excitement in that?

I believe school should be a subject that kids want to talk about excitedly, not dread. 

But the same, boring routine isn’t the only thing draining us. The amount of overwhelming school and homework also has a huge toll on us. 

Many students try and do their very best on their assignments throughout the day, but by the time they get home from school or their extracurricular activities, their brains are done thinking and they give up on their homework. 

Shouldn’t eight hours of school be enough? 

Lacrosse player Max Compher said “We constantly have work to do. I’m never able to just relax, there is always a new assignment to worry about.” 

Speaking of homework, keeping up with grades can also be incredibly difficult. I think that most students believe that they are defined by their grades and they are failing at life if they don’t do well on something or if they simply just don’t understand the concept. 

And this is where a student’s home life ties in. It can be very hard for a kid to go home and get scolded for a silly letter on their latest test when the truth is, they tried as hard as they could. 

Freshman Chase Hayes said, “Homelife is always affecting my school life, and vice versa.”

Parents aren’t the only ones who can weaken a teenager’s mental health. Teachers, classmates, and friends can, too. 

It seems like a student can walk into school having a hard time getting up or even being there due to mental health struggles and some teachers couldn’t care less. 

They take it as laziness or disrespect, but in reality, the students are just exhausted. A lot of us spend a lot of our time worrying about more than just schoolwork and grades. 

Unlike the movies, high school drama can be so consuming and exhausting, not to mention the amount of stress teenagers put on themselves to fit into everyone’s expectations. 

“At least 37% of high schoolers face mental health struggles due to school,” said the Pew Research Center. 

We are still kids, we shouldn’t have to struggle as much as we do.