Blaike Young When people told me junior year would be hard, I didn’t believe them.  I heard that it would be the most difficult year of my life, but how difficult could it really be? Well, I hate to break it to you sophomores, but junior year is about as hard as the Now or Later piece of stale candy that took out my last baby tooth.  And in a similar fashion, junior year has really matured me; no more baby teeth, no more bumpers preventing the balls I’m trying to juggle from falling to the waysides.

I find this article particularly appropriate because now is crunch time if there ever is one. So in a way, Forum readers, you are my therapist. Fellow juniors, I know you’ll be empathetic, and everyone else, I hope you’ll hear my venting and not find me too crazy. To be honest, I don’t think I would have dared to write these words if I didn’t truly believe others would understand. The junior year struggle is a common experience among Latin students. Hopefully, in writing these words, I make all of us feel that we are not alone in our wacko, unbearably stressed out stage.  We’re all in this together, after all (thanks High School Musical – not only for the lyric, but also for deceiving me and making me think I could have a pink locker with a closet inside of it).

Alright, so why the stress? I can basically sum it all up with a few letters: AP, ACT, SAT. Tack on finals also, can’t forget those. I’m not complaining (even though my articles tend to take on sort of whiny tone). It is all part of the high school experience, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good to let it all out. So that is what we shall do. And since we can’t scream at anyone besides our mothers or our annoying younger siblings who simply don’t get it and don’t even try to, we take to the page instead, lest we risk losing our familial punching bags. We’re in the pressure cooker, it seems we’ve been boiling all year (is that even what pressure cookers do?), and I’m more than just a little sweaty. It seems ironic but the heat of summer sounds all too refreshing.

So, to all of you who have been sleeping in the library, crying over tests, pulling all-nighters to finish essays, relearning all of American history from the settlement of Jamestown to whatever is going on in the world today, I am right there with you. Maybe you find little solace in that, but I think as a community, it’s nice to know other people are experiencing similar dilemmas and find themselves torn between Netflix and studying also. It’s comforting to know that we’re all going through the same things. Or maybe we’re not and I’m totally off, and I guess you can comment that down below (yay for my totally awful insights!).

We’re in the final stretch. We can do it. If we can’t do it alone, we’re all in this together. Wow, what a useful lyric. Here’s some more letters that may not be as scary: HSM (I, II, & III  – and maybe Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure).