School Exhaustion

School Exhaustion

Lately, I’ve been having an unhealthy pattern where every time I study for APUSH, I push myself way too hard. Last week, I was trying to prepare for a quiz, and I was so tired and mentally exhausted from all my other classes that I kept falling asleep unintentionally. I fell asleep on my textbook twice, and when I woke up my neck was stiff and my face stuck to the page. But even after this, I refused to stop and continued to push myself to keep studying. I felt like I had to keep going because of how much pressure there was to do well, especially since my cousins and my brother have always been top students. I often compare myself to my successful family members, leading me to force my brain to keep working even though it’s drained. It’s like I don’t even consider stopping and giving my body a break because doing well is just expected. 

Connecting this experience that I had to hustle culture, I’m starting to understand things that I didn’t before. I thought that overworking was something adults dealt with at real jobs, but after reflecting, I realize that I’m doing the same thing just as a student. This experience changed the way I think about hustle culture because it made me realize that it’s not just about work, but it can be in school, especially when you feel like you have to perform perfectly and are held to standards that are difficult to reach. It made me realize how normal it is for students to push themselves to the point of being burned out without even realizing.