The Struggle Olympics for “Sorry what? I needed my coffee...”

Despite the efforts of wellness culture on campus, there is an emerging number of students at SPHS who partake in the toxic health culture presented in work and education. The most prevalent problem facing students is a lack of sleep. With pressure to perform in school, a need for personal time, and countless back-to-back assignments, there never seems to be enough time in the day for students to complete everything handed to them.

Sleep deprivation is an epidemic that virtually all schools in the nation face. When 24 hours becomes 16 hours after school, then 10 hours after homework, and so on, there is only so much time that a student can set aside to sleep.

The Monday grogginess that people often discuss with dread and resentment can be extended to the entire working week on campus. Students at SPHS – seeking to counter their sleepiness and sleep deprivation – are forced to find ways to wake up and be prepared for the school day. The easiest way to stay awake is simple; caffeine and coffee have established a basic necessity for some students.

“I was staying up late every night to finish my work, causing me to prioritize school over sleep,” said one anonymous junior. “Because of extracurriculars and homework in specific subjects, coffee became a necessity for me to stay awake every morning and ignore my lack of sleep.”

The amount of time that students spend on work overrides the time that students are meant to be sleeping or spending on themselves. A lack of sleep forces students to seek our caffeine. The environment of competition and an “academics first” mindset furthers this narrative as students seek forms to stay attentive in order to stay on their toes for school.

With coffee shops galore in the city, caffeine is all too accessible for the high school students. From chains such as Starbucks and Jones’ to local shops like Kaldi, students frequent these locations during all parts of the day. Consuming an unhealthy amount of caffeine has become the norm for a large number of students on campus.

“I almost never get enough sleep, even without staying up super late,” said one anonymous senior. “Before I started taking coffee to school, I would not be awake enough to function or learn properly in class. With coffee, I can at least get through all my classes and maintain a positive energy level.”

What starts as a simple “pick-me-up” for some students grows into a more significant issue over time. The lack of sleep coupled with the rush caused by coffee or tea builds a reliance on the caffeine within the drinks. The problem becomes more prevalent as students move from sweet drinks to cold brews to straight shots of espresso.

The need for coffee stems from stress and heavy amounts of work. When students complain about missing their early morning americano or how tired they are, it should not be seen as whining or annoying. Rather, it should reveal how toxic health culture impacts our student body.

In tandem with a lack of sleep and dependency on additives such as caffeine, the eating habits that teenagers are so prideful in sharing reflect just how unhealthy teenagers are and how normalized these lifestyles have become. It is easy to fall victim to the belief that one should live in a calorie deficit when their classmates are sharing similar tendencies. But past these adopted tones of guilt laced with a paradoxical boasting lies the fact that schools imbued with such efforts of competition are dangerous environments for developing youth, particularly those who have struggled with eating disorders in the past.

The statements that allude to one’s eating habits are unnecessary as they are potentially triggering. Individuals are quick to make comments in seemingly casual settings like classrooms, failing to realize that these topics can be anything but casual to some. They can send one into a virulent spiral of overanalyzing their own dietary choices, inspiring obsessive tendencies with food. This has the effect of tainting the space as a whole and enhancing the discomfort of a school environment. With this in mind, individuals must take a reflective and mindful approach to those who they may be affecting before voicing such careless statements.

People are products of their surroundings and in a culture so embedded with the struggle olympics, the individuals who encourage and uphold their eating habits — despite knowing that they are unhealthy — cannot be solely to blame. When they exist in a world so attached to physical appearance and obsessed with obtaining the unattainable, it is understandable that they would interpret the realm of dieting as a space for competition. This understanding does not make the voicing of these statements acceptable, but it does put into perspective why individuals feel the need to make such announcements.

Those who flaunt their self-deprivation are not in any less painful a place than those they may affect with such statements. This does not detract from the fact that they are impacting others and, consciously or not, reinforcing the systems that impact their own habits.

It can be uncomfortable to listen to descriptions of others’ eating habits under a critical and comparative lens. It naturally causes others to assess how frequently and how much they eat and for those who have struggled with eating disorders or disordered eating in the past, it can send them back to a food-obsessed mindset. For those who have not experienced a negative relationship with food and eating, these statements can introduce such habits, perhaps encouraging them to examine their eating patterns for the first time. Those affected continue to affect, and the process becomes overwhelmingly cyclical.

Ignorance is a certain type of bliss when it comes to the daunting realms of one’s relationship with food. Those who are critically aware of their eating habits must be supported in all aspects towards healing. This healing can be fostered and encouraged by a campus culture that does not promote such habits through tactless, inconsiderate comments. Competing is in SPHS’s nature, and understanding that not everything must be a competition is a tough pill to swallow. But it is one that should be acknowledged as student continues to use struggle olympics as a detrimental display of ailment.