by Kamryn Lanier

As I open the heavy garage door an anxious feeling consumes my body because I know my parents will not be thrilled about the grade on my math test.

“You better study harder for this next test or it’s no phone and no TV, because your problem in school obviously has to do with technology”. I hear their voices already. The problem is I got a B on my test which is good for me but obviously not acceptable because I’m still being badgered with threats about bettering my grade. It’s A’s or nothing.

Now I have to cram for all the tests I have tomorrow: math tests, english tests and world geography; now I am pressured to get A’s on all these. Then I drag on to a soccer practice and piano practice, and complete tons of other tasks like attempting to clean my room, which will only stay clean for a short time anyways. By the time I crawl into bed it’s 1:00 a.m. I had to stay up even later preparing to get all A’s on all my tests, so my parents could at least be proud of me. For my pajamas that night I decide to wear my STA uniform, now I save time getting dressed.

My head swims with the noise of the loud, tired-out ringtone that comes from my phone at 5:45 a.m. in the morning. I’m not actually using my phone for an alarm clock, at the moment because it’s too busy taking forever to download IOS7. If you’re not accustomed to a homework filled, disheartening, morning routine consider yourself lucky!

Staying up late to study made me forget to charge my netbook. Guess I’m taking notes on the lecture in my spiral. The whole class has to painfully wait for me to copy down the board. The whole class nods their heads and gives questioning looks like they’re actually listening but are probably just sleeping with their eyes open. I close my eyes, just for a few minutes.

“Wake up!” Fingers nudge my arm. Turns out I missed the rest of the class and now have a detention for falling asleep. Throughout the day I’m constantly thinking about the upcoming test and how good I need to do on it, the pressure to succeed put on me at home as carried into the rest of the day and just made it miserable.

In the end I get an even worse score than I did before.

Our parents have the ability to affect the outcome of our grade by how they help them prepare for tests. Discouraging our best attempts to good by only accepting all A’s and nothing short, not even a B increases the pressure on us, students, which increases stress, and that leads to kids being overwhelmed and unhappy.

The pressures parents put on kids in high school affect their well-being because of the burden to only get A’s; there is no time to focus on the enjoyable things in life and growing up. Parents think they’re helping by putting pressure on their kids to get all A’s so they can go to college, but it actually doesn’t help them succeed. When parents do this they have a tendency to make children feel like their best isn’t enough, which is immoral because our parents should be supporting us as much as they can. Being punished for grades when you’re obviously trying is unfair to children; you obviously need more help on the subject to do better. Having parents give you the infamous disappointed look does not help you get an A. You need support to do better.

Do you need to be stressed out to be successful? No. So why do all the kids in high school I talk to feel like walls are caving in on them? Growing up feeling so overwhelmed constantly isn’t what I would call “enjoying your childhood”. It’s one thing for our parents to want us to succeed; everyone wants that for their kid. At the same time, our parents should want us, teenagers, to be happy. Putting tons of pressure on us just to get an A and not being happy when we’ve tried our absolute best and just missed the mark doesn’t make me, or anyone else feel as good about themselves or their accomplishments. I believe many kids experience the unwanted cloud of pressure to get an A but all kids need are proud parents.