Navigating your high school years is a challenging experience in and of itself. As the years have progressed, it has become more than just academic life for students. Now, we have been tasked to juggle our social lives, extracurricular activities, and academic careers. 

It’s almost impossible to argue that if you want to accomplish something along the road in your life, you must start putting in the work right now. Though not all of it, most of your effort comes from your schooling and education. Junior year is when students begin to take their futures seriously because this is when it all starts to count. It is good to start looking into your plans for the future and acting upon them this year, but you should also keep in mind that burnout can come quickly if you are not used to this kind of atmosphere. Taking AP and honors classes is a perfect idea until you have overestimated your abilities and find yourself in piles of work. This is when balancing your schedule becomes difficult because you need more than just your transcript to look like a good candidate for university. 

You might think that packing your schedule full of barely manageable classes seems like a good idea, but you must remember that if you want to look like a good, well-rounded student, you need to further your resume. This is where extracurriculars come into play. Whether that may be a variety of new and different clubs or entering into a sports team, you need to participate in something to prove your worthiness to be able to attend college. 

Now, when you finally get to a point where you have decided your schedule for your entire year, you need to ensure you can complete all your tasks. The preparation was easy, but when it comes to actually keeping up with your workload, it becomes a severe problem. Since your schedule is basically set for the first six hours of your day, there is no need for much worry during this time, but once this period is over, you’re forced to think about how the rest of your day will look. Let’s say that during this time, you’re in the midst of your sports season, and as soon as you’re out of school, you must get going to practice. Now, two more hours have just been taken away from you. This precious time could have been used to complete any homework you received from the day or spent with your friends. This is the wrong mindset to have. Getting used to these packed schedules at first could be difficult, but it will become easier with the right motivation and push to keep going as you move forward.