School is stressful by itself, with waking up early, due dates, tests, homework, etc. Imagine this on top of getting home and having to worry about even more work. Whether it be a job or any extracurricular activity it can be without a doubt stressful for students.

Stress from this can be little, moderate, or very high for high school students with some students saying they have no free time, they can’t get a sufficient amount of sleep, or it’s harder to maintain grades etc. On a local newspaper poll, 82% of students say as a result of having an extracurricular activity or job they have less free time. 52% say it is harder to maintain good grades in school, and 58% say it is harder to get a sufficient amount of sleep with having an extracurricular activity or job.

“It can be a lot to handle sometimes since I have to work and make sure I’m doing ok in school,” said one Norwin sophomore.

Looking into jobs students have there are different things students can be stressed about depending on their work environment. according to the poll, about a quarter of students say it is hard to get along with their coworkers, about half say they are always on their feet and others say they feel like they’re always under pressure.

Additionally, students with other types of activities such as sports or clubs undergo some stress along with school as well. 50% of the students with a different activity such as a sport say expectations that have to be met stress them out. 25% say that physical activity can be exhausting.

On the topic of juggling stress along with school, the poll asked:  “Do you feel like school was easier for you before you started working/participating in activities? According to the survey the majority of the votes agreed that school was easier. Some students replied “Yes, it was easier for me to just go home and take some time for myself,” and another, “Yes, because I had more free time to complete schoolwork.”

Everyone has different experiences, jobs, activities, or other activities after school so everyone won’t always feel the same about how stressed they are. 88% of the poll results say they have something to do whether it be a sport, club, job, or an extra curricular activity. With more stress from juggling school and an extracurricular activity and or job comes more problems. On a poll which asked how stressed you are on a scale of 1 to 10, the results were very different. The ranges were from 4 to 10.

It is no doubt high school itself is stressful for students, 100% of the poll results answered yes for the question asking if you have ever felt stressed in high school at one point.

Another poll question addressed the question: Does your job/activity personally cause too much stress for you to deal with? Some students agree with responses that say: “ Yes, I feel extremely overwhelmed and stressed at times.” Other students disagree with responses like, “No, it’s more of an outlet from school,” and “not really, I’ll be stressed for a while but I’ll move through it.”

Finally, the students were polled: “Do you think overall having jobs/activities can in some cases be too stressful for high school students?”. Almost every student in the poll agreed with this with responses saying: “Yes, if you overdo it. You have to know your limits, and “Yes, I think working every day of the week is definitely too much for a high schooler, I think balance is most important to not become too stressed.”