On any given day, while walking down Tiger hall one would expect to see hand-holding, disgusting PDA, and freshman frantically running to get to their next period. 

However, especially towards the end of marking periods, we see a much different scene. Crippling anxiety. Students constantly checking Tyler like it’s their ex’s Instagram. And, of course, tears. It’s unspoken, but we all know what happened. No, it’s not a breakup story. It’s not a fight between best friends. You failed. 

If you’re a sophomore at NAI,  you either understand the struggle or will most definitely hear about the struggle of the next AP HUG test. Or how hard the chem test was and- did you get 32° for the last question? 

This constant fear and pressure we put on ourselves is detrimental to our minds. For some of us, it’s our parent’s pressure to be the best and get 95% and higher on every test. But for a lot of us, it’s the pressure we put on ourselves. We have this mindset that if we aren’t as good as our peers we have failed. Not just on one test, but in life in general. 

This article isn’t to blame our teachers, because how we handle stress truly isn’t their fault. It’s time to give ourselves a re-evaluation of how we handle the pressure of our tougher classes. 

 At North Allegheny in particular, the tension that weighs down us down affects our friendships and our families. We spend so much time in our room grinding for our next test, telling ourselves we will just relax on the weekend, but the time for ease never comes. We push and push ourselves to our mental limits and then beyond that. 

We hear all the time, “that this won’t matter in a year” and this isn’t to discourage us to care about our grades, but when we get a grade we aren’t happy with, we cannot take it out on our friends, family and most importantly, ourselves. 

We need to learn from past mistakes and stop ruining our mental health for a 90 point test. We cannot keep our mental health on the backburner any longer.