Bailey+D’s+2018+OpEd+Article

 Ever since I was a young girl, I had this idea that high school was going to be filled with fun social events and great memories - basically just having a carefree time during the last few years of childhood. Boy was I wrong. Television shows and movies like High School Musical and Hannah Montana blurred my judgement, making high school seem like four years of fun! (eye roll) Now don’t get me wrong, I have made lifelong friends and learned so much more than I thought possible, but for me high school classes have seemed like a real time consuming job (that I am not getting paid for).

As I endure this second semester of Junior year, at first I was optimistic because first semester wasn’t absolutely terrible. Yeah, Mr. Fitz gave us some pop quizzes and Mrs. Kindred gave us some essays, but I made it out alive. Now, as I look at the mountain of daily homework increasing with tests around every corner and volleyball season picking up speed I wonder, where did the time go?.

Second semester is absolutely terrible. Disease project takes up my FIRE periods and dominates any remnants of a personal life I used to have. In history, it seems like there is a new surprise every week, making my grade bounce up and down like a sin graph. In English, the AP English test seems to be approaching faster and faster, making each essay appear more crucial than before. For the physiology homework, I have to color about a million different tissues, cells, muscles, and systems. Then, I memorize every piece of information in the packet, but there is still that one question on the test that I don’t recall even hearing about. I spend three hours a week looking at bacteria under microscopes, hurting my light blue eyes, writing note after note in my FDA approved notebook which has a list of a million rules that I must follow. Adding to this fun time, I can't wear my favorite shoes ever: my Birkenstocks! I sit in Mr. Villano’s class and hear him ramble on about a circle and some triangles, wondering when I am going to need to find the side length of a triangle when I am a doctor. Addition to all this madness, I have to study for the agonizing SAT which basically determines which college I get into.

To be fair, Junior year has taught me how to manage my time more efficiently and my classes are pretty interesting. My teachers are awesome and I feel extremely blessed to attend Foothill. I just needed to vent because life seems a lot crazier than it used to be. I would do anything to go back to the days where 2+2=4 and books didn’t have some underlying meaning in every sentence.