Why I need to do something differently

October 13, 2020

Learning Chinese has never been all too difficult for me to learn, but the external struggles that occur for me constantly have significantly hampered my ability to learn. It's actually quite ironic, since with the day off from school I might actually get to study Chinese for the first time this school year, aside from a few inconsiderably minor advances in my grammatical studies. Since it's something I'm extremely passionate about, in the summer studying for 1-3 hours per day, sometimes more, this is just disappointing.

I've encountered this problem before, but this is the first time it's happened in such a way and the first time it's concerned me so much I don't expect to reach level 6 of the HSK at all. For reference, if I had maintained a proper study schedule, the same as in the summer, I would be at LEVEL 5 by now! Where am I still? The level that took me 5 days to learn the vocabulary from that encouraged me so much, at level 3.

In years past, it's been that I procrastinated so much that it was hard for me to study every day. Yet this time the problem is almost completely inevitable: I have so much work that not only is procrastination impossible, getting done the things as important to me as school are also impossible. I'm only a sophomore! This year I'm taking 3 honors classes and 2 college classes- it's certainly a big workload, but considering I expect to take 1 additional college class at the least next year, there's no way this can stand. As I'm writing this, my power is out and my chromebook is about to die, so there's not much work I can get done.

According to an article by the Better Sleep Council, homework is the top cause of student stress, negatively affecting their sleep and therefore academic performance. Though school starts much later, it ends later as well, and what teachers have been assigning, labeled as "classwork" is actually work I rush to complete after school, just so I can begin to think about the loads of homework I face afterwards. The earliest I've gotten to bed since school started was 12 am.

Why do students like myself continue to stand for this, potentially risking my entire future, which will be in Chinese because I'm not getting access to common human needs like sleep?