Perfectly Balanced

WORDS OLIVIA STOCK PHOTO LEAH TAN

In Great Expectations, Pip abandons his childhood caretaker and friend, Joe, in favor of pursuing a luxurious lifestyle in a big city. While students at this school may not experience such an extreme disruption in their relationships, many struggle to balance their schoolwork and social life.

One such student is sophomore Jocelyn Yang. She said this year’s hybrid schedule has been a unique challenge for her in balancing schoolwork and quality time with family and friends.

“You’re at home a lot; you lose a lot of your motivation to work,” she said. “When you lose that motivation you just don’t do things and you end up procrastinating it, dragging it out, doing it slower, and then it ends up taking more time. You have less time to spend with the people you care about.”

Freshman Joseph Sandy said though he has had a lighter workload this year compared to previous years, motivation has been a struggle, which leads to less time spent with friends.

“The virtual work is piling on up,” he said. “There’s been a little less work physically, but there’s been a lot more work mentally just to get it done.”

In addition to students struggling with motivation, counselor Kris Hartman said via email she has seen students having difficulties in their social lives due to social distancing requirements or having friends in a different cohort.

“I think (balancing school and relationships) is not an easy task in a normal year, but with all that has gone on with COVID restrictions and people not being able to see friends and family, it has been more difficult this year,” she said.

Both Yang and Sandy said they would prioritize good grades over relationships if necessary, but for different reasons.

Yang said her family’s expectations for her academic performance have influenced how she prioritizes relationships, and have been detrimental to her friendships in the past.

“In my household situation, grades are what causes the most strain in family relations because they worry about my future,” she said. “So I would prioritize grades because for them, even if they don’t

Take a look at activities students often have to balance alongside school work

GRAPHIC ARCHIT KARLA, PRANAV JOTHIRAJAH

Sports: Carmel High School offers: Basketball, Soccer, Football, Cross Country, Track and Field, etc.

Practices occur daily with games/ tournaments happening throughout the week

Clubs: Carmel High School offers hundreds of clubs to join Students can also create clubs with administration appoval

see me as much, or ever really, they have the peace of mind to know that I’m okay.”

Sandy said his parents were laid-back about his grades and part of his challenges with balancing school and relationships comes from his own desire to do well in school.

“I don’t struggle with my parent’s expectations; I more struggle with my personal expectations,” he said.

According to Hartman, ideally, students should not have to choose between grades and relationships, and that if this was the case, the student may need to make changes.

“A student needs to look at their workload at school, making sure they are not taking on too much rigor, etc, and are able to have a healthy amount of time to spend with friends,” she said. “If a student feels too stressed

about schoolwork to maintain their grades and have “I had a schedule that I followed and did daily,” healthy relationships, they may need to talk (to) an she said. “I knew what I needed to get done and adult, like a parent or school counselor, about how they I turned in all my assignments on time or early are feeling and how they can best address the issue.” and that’s not been the case this year. I’ve been

Taking too many rigorous courses and not managing very confused this year overall on where I am and time effectively can, according to Yang, make it more previous years were just not like that.” difficult to achieve an effective balance. She said Outside of student work ethic, Sandy said he organization and planning have been helpful to her. thinks the standards established by the American

“Have a very clear schedule,” she said, “because education system play a part in students struggling you can’t spend six hours on math. I’ve learned that with having good grades and a developed social life. the hard way.” “I think it’s a problem because, at least for the

Organization is also important to Sandy, and American education system, there’s so much stuff that’s he said another factor in a successful just thrown at us that we have almost no balance is making sure to wake up early enough to get work done. “Set a time to wake yourself up in the morning, roughly the time you would wake up for in-person school. Set a time, get a planner, make a schedule.” Hartman said she would recommend planning strategies to make more time for “ I don’t struggle with my parent’s expectations; I more struggle with my personal expectations FRESHMAN JOSEPH SANDY “ time to enjoy our normal life,” he said. “Those three months of summer, the reason we experience so much brain rot is because we finally get a break from all that work.” Like working a job, according to Hartman, school can take a lot of commitment and time. “In some sense, school is essentially a friends, and that students can be creative by doing both student’s full-time job. The stress of finding a balance schoolwork and spending time with friends. can be similar to an adult finding a balance when

“Being organized and planning intentionally is having full-time employment.” important to achieve this balance,” she said. “You Ultimately, Yang said, this year has been different can also combine studying and seeing friends by compared to previous years which has presented creating study groups, etc.” students with unique challenges in balancing their

Yang said in previous years, she has not struggled social lives with schoolwork. as much with getting good grades and spending “Everyone’s struggling, everyone is,” she said. “Some time with friends and family. more than others. It is what it is.” A

KEYBOARD WARRIOR Counselor Kris Hartman works on finalizing college recommendation letters. According to Hartman, social distancing and COVID has made it hard for students to find motivation and to balance their activities.