First trimester is over, and now I can take a breath.

What a whirlwind it's been. First trimester of Junior year is over, I can officially sit down and stuff my belly with some turkey, forget about how many sides are in a rhombus, and listen to the static in my brain for a full 9 days. Finally, I'm in Palm Beach, and I don't think I've been this thrilled for a vacation since...oh right, summer...

...SUMMER! How far away you seem and yet how badly I wish upon your arrival. This summer I will be staying in London for a month and taking a photography class at Cavendish College (yes, I'm practically spastic with excitement) and I actually am counting down the days (FYI, it's over 100...an eternity.) The fact that I have to wait another five months until I can sit on that British Airways flight, slip on a fake Cockney accent, and assume the name Clarissa is like Chinese water torture to think about...I want to be there now now now!

Another thing that's been on my mind recently is how overworked every single one of my friends seems to be this year. You always hear "Oh, Junior year's a real toughie" and "It's the year that counts!", but why? Why is this the life changing year that everyone and the President is going to know about and see, in scrutinizing detail, on your high school transcript? Why must we cry over a not-so-hot quiz grade, or even a B on a test? (yes, one of my friends actually CRIED over a B on a test. Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you.) I have some friends playing three varsity sports, in all honors classes, tutoring inner city children on weeknights for an hour, and doing more community service on the weekends, while managing to have five hour study sessions for AP Physics afterwards and ace their test the next day. I admire them incredibly and applaud them for their accomplishments of seemingly impossible tasks but really- where is the time to have fun on the weekends? Where is the time to eat, to sleep, to breathe? Where is the time to be a KID? Society is demanding too much of high school students these days, and I for one am terrified that it's only going to get worse.

To get into college during my parent's time, you had to be a good student and a hard worker. To get into college now, you have to have founded your own charity organization, gone to Nicaragua to aid in a peacekeeping settlement, and invented the newest version of fat-free but still yummy mint chocolate chip ice cream. Oh yeah, and it's nice if you won the Nobel Peace Prize, too.

GIVE ME A BREAK!

I'm sorry that I'm not a mathematical genius. I'm sorry that I can't speak fifteen languages- fluently- and that I don't have the drive to sit through a three hour AP Chem lab class while managing to take flawless notes and maintain a 96% average. I'm sorry that I'm...average? That I'm a normal sixteen year old girl, trying to get through classes and manage to live my life at the same time?

Actually, I'm not sorry.

I'm sorry for those parents who pressure their kids, or those kids who pressure themselves to the point of ulcers and neurotic stress syndrome because their pencils are out of order, or they're missing one homework assignment in the quarter. I'm not saying I slack off either, I do my work and I try my hardest, but I know my limits and I know that I can only do what I can do, and no more. Hence, I'm not advocating indolence, rather, I'm advocating sanity and as much of a stress-free environment that you can create for yourself.

Why is it wrong to go after your passions? If your kid wants to be an artist, your kid wants to be an artist- don't try and push stock broker, bond trader, or chemist in their path because they just won't be happy. Why should someone have to struggle in an AP Stat class when they really would love to be taking Art History or photography? Do the students of today really care enough about what colleges will think of them- how they will be labeled by some irreverent admissions counselor reading their life on a piece of paper- that chooses their fate by saying yes, no, or deferred? The answer, sickly and sadly, is yes. We care. We care a lot. We care enough to take up the oboe in 11th grade after 16 years of never playing an instrument. We care enough to spend three months of summer working in a science lab doing research and not seeing the light of day, let alone getting a chance to go swimming or enjoy the fresh air. We care enough to travel to India, for no other purpose than writing about said experience in 'The College Essay'.

My point is, we're being forced to grow up too fast, too soon, with too much on our plates. Our society is solely interested in instant gratification and labeling, hence why we work so hard to get into the 'school of our dreams', which may not even be a right fit for our personalities, but because it's got 'IVY" attached to it's name, it's automatically the best of the estimated 2,618 four year colleges and universities in this country. Yes they're the most rigorous, challenging academic programs, but what about making friends? What guarantees that if you go to a certain 1 out of 8, you'll end up happy and fulfilled with your social life and your friendships? The annual US News College Ranking pull out? Nope. Nothing. Nothing at all guarantees happiness except your own conscience and state of mind.

And so I beg you- someone- please stop the madness. Get your kid a toy, or give them a pat on the back and say 'good job on that math test', not, 'bring up that Spanish grade.' Yes I just went all Full House on you but I truly believe that if more people started acting less stressed and more accepting of anything less than perfection we'd have a much better world to live in. Not to mention, less psychiatrists.

And now....back to my blissful vacation of...doing nothing. Amen to that.