The Many Sides of Life

This is my intensely long journalism piece as part of my final. it's about lifee sorta.

By Tavia Rzasa
Waking up at 5:33 every morning can get really old after a while. But there I am, every morning at exactly 5:33 a.m., slamming the snooze button of my alarm clock for a few extra minutes of sleep; precious sleep that I feel like I never get. As I drag myself out from under the covers I think, “here comes another day.”
By the time I actually get myself up and out of bed, it can be anywhere between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Sometimes it’s around 6:17 when I finally wake up to the sound of my dad’s voice yelling at me to move it. I then run down the stairs at full speed and attempt to get ready in the remaining minutes I have before the bus arrives.
I hate taking the bus. I hate it even more now especially because I have my license. Yes a license, but sadly, no car. Not yet at least. Even though I feel as though I really need one with all the sports I participate in. Hopefully someday I’ll have my own car.
Maybe having a car of my own will relieve some of the stress of playing sports, while trying to keep up my grades and school, keeping in touch with friends and finding the time for family. All of this stress can make it very hard for my body to function at times, but I find ways to get by.
There’s never any time for breakfast either. I’m always running around the house in the morning trying to get everything together so I’ll be prepared for the day. “Gotta get my lacrosse stick! Gotta get my backpack! Ahh I forgot my wallet!” I have a lot going through my head in the morning and I always have that feeling that I’m forgetting something. Breakfast is the one thing I forget almost every morning.
Forgetting something is one of the worst things I could possibly do to myself during a regular, stress-filled day at school. Leaving something like a T-shirt for practice or a pair of running sneakers behind can put me in a terrible mood. Just knowing I left that stupid shoe on the kitchen floor bothers me all day. Having no car to go get the stupid shoe and get back to the school before practice doesn’t help me much either. Damn, I can’t wait for my car.
As I arrive at Nashua High School South around 7 a.m., I hop off the bus and walk slowly to my locker, almost always listening to music. By the time I walk across the school to my locker, two of my closest friends, Greg and Ryan are usually there. My other good friend Duke will show up a few minutes later, usually asking me to go for a walk with her for no reason. Or maybe it’s one of those special days when we’ll all make the trip to the cafeteria to get a muffin before the first bell. What could be better than seeing three of my best friends first thing in the morning?
To be honest, I’d rather just sit on the floor in front of my locker with Greg, Ryan and Duke all day instead of going to class. I’m perfectly fine sitting there listening to music and talking to friends and whoever else may pass by. And then the second bell rings at 7:15, indicating that there are just five remaining minutes until first block begins. At this time, Greg usually stands up and pulls me with him saying, “that’s our cue. Let’s go Tav.”
Once first block rolls around, I’m usually ready to head straight back to bed. I do anything I can to make it through the day. Sometimes the thing getting me through the day is one of those 5 hour energy shots, a coffee, techno music, anything. Good moods usually help too, but that all depends on the day of course.
First block could mean anything. I have “Blueprints for America,” which I consider a fancy name for sophomore social studies. What we actually do in Blueprints depends on my teacher’s mood; debates, notes, a movie, a boring lecture or maybe we’ll just end up sitting there for the entire block. Sometimes I’ll end up starting a huge fight across the classroom with the kid who often insults women. But, hey, you never know. Every day is a different one.
The clock lands on 8:48 and second block will be upon us after eight minutes of running throughout the hallways. I quickly shuffle my little feet across the school to my locker then straight back to go to Journalism; my favorite. As I straggle in to Greene’s class, I take my usual seat right next to my favorite journalism buddies Jess and Megan. We sit together and wait for Greene to put up yet another stage of “Hell” on the board. If there is no new stage of Hell, I go on to write a new sports story for our Web site “Snewz.” There’s always some sort of deadline in Mr. Greene’s class.
Greene even switched it up a little bit on us and changed everything about our little groups. My life is over now that my Web site has been turned into a podcast and we’ve had to fire a few people. I feel terrible, but it’s just another day in the life of a dedicated journalist.
After a while, the idea of a podcast seems great to my group mates and I. After a few days of freaking out and hating our lives in journalism, we had to come to love podcasting and got on with our show, now called “JMVT.”As a matter of fact, Jess and I love talking so much, we just ramble on and on during our show and don’t even realize it. We have a great time and make ourselves laugh. Hopefully the audience thinks we’re as humorous as we find ourselves.
By the time third block finally comes around, I’m pretty much done with school for the day and I’m sure many other students feel the same way. As my Spanish teacher puts up the pre-class assignment, I sigh and tell myself I’m not doing the work. After about two minutes of staring at the board with a blank expression on my face, I feel like I’m going to fail and go on to do the assignment.
Spanish was never my favorite subject. I think people in the United States should all learn English, but I guess that’s not going to happen. I have officially given up on the language, especially now that the Nashua School District has recommended I discontinue my study of the language. To make matters worse, my teacher agreed. I can tell she believes in me…
Lunch time, just twenty-five minutes after third block begins. It’s something to look forward to. Too bad lunch at Nashua South feels like the shortest thing in the history of lunch blocks ever given to high school students. I have to make sure I get a good, healthy lunch; something good enough to hold me over for six hours or until I get home from sports.
Fourth block, slowly but surely on its way, gives me a slight feeling of relief. All I have to do is get through Graphics Design and I’ve made it through the entire school day.
When the final bell rings at 2:03, I hustle my way across the building to my locker, then back again to the locker room: practice time. Whether it’s basketball, lacrosse or soccer, I still have a lot on my plate. After practice, I have to go home and do my homework. Sometimes I have to go to another practice after that if I’m playing on another sports team at the same time.
Practice can get tough when you’re tired, and when you have a lot on your mind. With so much work at school, and whatever else may be going on, focusing is also another issue.
The stress only increases as the school year goes on. Teachers push more work at us towards the end of the semester. The amount of homework and projects we get increases, and then there are those last impressions to worry about as well.
Finals just happen to be those “last impressions.” The last test you take before the class is over for good. It’s usually somewhere around 20% of your overall grade. Having one test count as one-fifth of a course overall can put a lot of excess pressure on a student. The worst part has to be having more than one final. Of course, there are four classes every semester, adding up to four finals at the end of 90 school days. That increases the stress by four times, making extra-curricular activities even harder to balance than they are during the rest of the school year.
Studying can be a problem as well. It takes a lot of focus and free time. Finding the strength to focus is hard enough on its own, but free time can be a challenge as well. Focusing is a downer. It’s almost like clearing your head and thinking about nothing but academics and school; how boring. Half of studying can be memorizing too. All those crazy math and science formulas are all from memory; who really knows what all that stuff means anyways?
Having to take four finals at the end of the second semester is even more dreadful than taking them at the end of the first semester. At the end of January when first semester ends, it’s cold and disgusting outside. When it starts getting warm and sunny outside, all I want to do is go outside. It’s too nice out to be stuck inside a hot, sticky classroom with thirty other kids taking a huge test. It makes the whole idea of focusing a lot more of an issue.
Stress can come not only from peers, but from family as well. The pressure to succeed is extremely high, but I guess it all depends on what family you’re from. With two engineers for parents (and not to mention a mother who only got one B in her entire high school career), the bar is set relatively high. In a way, this is fabulous. It pushes me to my full potential, but at the same time it adds a little bit more stress.
Aside from having a ton of school work and sports, I, like every other teenager, enjoy spending time with my friends. However, finding that time can be quite the challenge, with so much else going on in my life every day. When I do capture those moments of free time with friends, everything else seems to go away. Life is much happier when there are no projects or finals or sports practices to worry about. That’s probably the beauty of summer vacation. A few months of doing whatever we want with no stress. It’s simply amazing; if only it were longer than two and not-even-a-half months.
Don’t get me wrong, I love sports. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t spend almost all of my time playing them. After a while though, they can get tiring. Breaks are usually fantastic. If we had a few more week-long vacations (like spring break), everything would be a lot less stressful. And it would give everyone something to look forward to other than summer vacation, which seems to be months away no matter what time of year it is. There’s nothing like a little motivation.
Rewarding myself is another way I find keeps me motivated. Something as simple as telling myself I can go to McDonald’s later with Duke can get me through the day.
Having all of these things to do every day can get stressful at times and makes life a little bit harder. Other high school student athletes feel the same way I’m sure. Trying to juggle school work, school sports, family, friends, other sports programs and anything else life may throw at us can get tough at times. The pressures of growing up seem fun and exciting at first, but after a while it can get just a little bit out of hand.
Bradley Hospital psychologist, Jennifer Dyl, posted a story about a seventeen year old girl named Marissa. In a way, Marissa reminded me of myself. She was your average high school student, trying to get everything done in time and right. Marissa plays two varsity sports, has a job, is trying to study and is trying to decide what college she will attend. On top of that, she is worried that her best friend is upset with her (for reasons unknown), and has to find a prom dress suitable for her.
According to Dyl, taking on too many activities at one time is a major stress factor. Aside from participating in too many activities, the pressures of academics, peers, future and society also affect a teenager’s ability to function.
Every day, teenagers like me are influenced by the things that go on around them. There’s always some sort of new trend that’s going on. It’s hard to keep up with and just distracts us even more. Even the simplest things, like deciding what outfit to wear to school or out, can stress out a teenager.
There are many different signs of stress that vary from teen to teen. A major sign that a teenager is stressed out is when they start withdrawing themselves from friends and activities they usually partake in. Some teens also “shut down” in the sense that they just sleep any chance they get.
Aside from being tired all the time, some teenagers will often get angry when they get too stressed out to handle. Irritability is very common in stressed out teenagers, as most will take out their anger on the ones they are closest to. Teens will be so upset that they won’t even realize what they’re doing, but will feel terrible about it later.
Along with being angry all the time comes depression. When a teenager no longer knows who they can rely on and where to turn next, they are at a high risk to become depressed. Depression is very common in stressed out teenagers because it tires them out completely. If one is tired all of the time, they will lose interest in the things they usually enjoy doing; such as sports, hanging out with friends or even just hanging around at home. At that point, the teenager needs someone to talk to or they will just get more depressed.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying playing a school sport and trying to balance everything else is the worst thing in the world. I see it as a great experience and sort of like a test drive of what real life will be like when I’m older. Trying to get everything done in a short amount of time will help with my time management skills. But how could I forget to mention multitasking? Multitasking is a great skill for the future when I have a real job; especially when I have a family and children of my own to take care of, while trying to get work done at the same time.
Although the stress levels I get while playing three sports a year are high, I still love it. Playing sports, especially basketball, is my passion and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. The stress gets tough after a while, but there are great ways to cope with it.
Dyl states many mechanisms that teens often use to help their stressful lives. Some of the most common coping mechanisms include deep breathing, self-encouragement, muscle relaxation, setting smaller goals and breaking them down and other simple things such as eating regularly and getting exercise. Other ways to cope include talking about the stress with others such as friends, focusing on just the things you can control and letting go of uncontrollable things, lowering unrealistic expectations, scheduling breaks and social activities and accepting yourself for who you are and realizing your best is your best.
As for me, I use some of those methods, but not all of them. I find giving myself some breaks every once in a while to be the most successful. Having something to look forward to, like hanging around with friends for the evening, can be a great motivation to get stuff done.
Another coping mechanism I find quite useful is setting smaller goals for myself and breaking down the big ones. Smaller goals seem way more realistic, which can help me stay focused and feel like I can do it.
If I can find the time to make myself a “To Do List,” I think I’ll be much better off. Being able to check off what I’ve got done and realize what I’ve got left to do can be good motivation for me as well.
I also believe that keeping my body on a regular diet and eating normal food at normal times is a major key to success with an active lifestyle like mine. Keeping food in my system keeps me going and gives me the energy I need to make it through the day. Food usually makes me happy as well; also something to help me get by with so much going on every day.
To be honest, I’ve never tried the whole “taking deep breaths” thing. Maybe that’ll work but I’ve always thought that was going a little too far into meditation stuff. I’ve never even really tried staying too positive with myself either; like saying “I can do this.” Maybe even something as simple as that could help reduce my stress levels and keep me focused on what I have to do.
Living the life of a student athlete does indeed get tiring but in the end, I wouldn’t trade my lifestyle for anything. After it all, I feel like I’ve accomplished something and I feel very good about myself. Playing sports is fun.
When I play a sport, I seem to forget everything else that may be going on in life and just play. I use sports as a coping mechanism and they seem to make everything better. Playing a sport can also help take out some of the anger I have on occasion. Soccer is one of the sports that can help with that the most. Kicking a soccer ball as hard as I can is somehow relieving. Basketball can help relieve some anger as well, especially when we get to scrimmage. Pushing people around has pretty much the same effect as nailing a soccer ball 100 yards down the field.
Playing sports year-round can get extremely tiring and stressful at times, but in the end I would still say I love it. Even at times when I say I hate it, I don’t mean it. Being a tri-athlete and an honor roll student is something I am proud of and I wouldn’t give it up for the world.