When do you have time?

by Samantha Gaskin

It’s 11pm and you just got home from work. You take a shower and eat dinner then lay down ready to go to bed. Then you remember you have a huge test and homework due the next day. You sit down to do it, but don’t end up finishing it until the early hours of the morning. Then by the time you go to bed, you have just a few hours to sleep before waking up at 5 am to do it all over again.

Many students face these problems everyday of the school year even with playing sports. So when do they have time?

Between advanced classes, extracurricular activities and work, today’s students are stretching themselves out way too thin. Most people think that teenagers are supposed to have fun and hangout with their friends and be carefree, but many teenagers’ lives are anything but the carefree lives portrayed in movies and on TV.

Sometimes work can get in the way of school work.

“There’s been many times where work has gotten in the way of school work, but a job is just as much of a responsibility as school and I always try my best to get both my studying and work done, even if it means I have to stay up very late,” says senior Cammie Beckett. This is the case for many high school students who have multiple responsibilities and are trying to balance them all.

Oftentimes, juggling these responsibilities causes students to miss time in school, because many times, kids who don’t have time to finish work the night before will stay home from school the next day to get it done, then come in late.

If students don’t come in late, they rely heavily on having time to either get homework done or study for a test during an SLP.

Senior Jack Clayton explained, “If I don’t get  (homework) done the night before, I usually do it in my first period class,” which is an SLP.

If a student doesn’t have an SLP, they might spend another class period working to finish homework or to prepare for a test:  “I usually study the class before,” said senior Marc Burns.

These problems have been coming up more and more where kids don’t have time to do their schoolwork when they get home from either their job or sport.

So, is it worth having to scramble?

“Even though it’s hard it is worth being busy all the time because you learn time management and you are able to make your own decisions, ” said senior Mariam Shawish.