POV: You’re a high schooler, standing around next to a friend of a friend. Neither of you are saying anything. You’re staring at your shoes, avoiding eye contact.
“I’m so tired,” you sigh after a while, only to fill the silence. It’s your favorite phrase, your saving grace, the most natural way for you to communicate with an equal. And the best part is that it’s always true.
They nod in agreement.
“Same,” they say, and you are satisfied. That was as much of a conversation as you were looking for. The bell rings. You part ways.
For a few days in October, I went around asking Needham High School students for reasons why they were tired. Not a single person told me that they were not, in fact, tired, which was expected of a group of teenagers in a school building. I received quite a large range of answers to this question. Students were tired for a multitude of reasons, from minor inconveniences to global dilemmas to personal choices, from internal crises to physical or mental exhaustion.
From these past couple months of school alone, I’ve heard students describe themselves as “burnt out” or “drained.” Even first-years, who have only been battling high school since September 1st can feel this way. Going from middle school to high school can be a huge jump in workload, social complications, and mood swings. Managing your time in order to get adequate grades, fit in extracurriculars, and get a good night's sleep becomes increasingly difficult, which is why most people don’t end up getting a full eight hours of rest. Of course, for seniors, there’s the added stress of college applications, and every grade has tests to study for and essays to write while attempting to maintain their mental health.
Covid-19 has only added to the high schooler’s stress. At the end of the 2020 school year and into the beginning of the following school year, much of the regular school curriculum was dropped, and students were not given as much work to do as in previous years. Because of this change, students were not well prepared for the years ahead. Currently, many students are behind, and are painfully aware that they are behind. Sleep is lost just trying to catch up.
Beyond their individual concerns, many in minority groups such as people of color and the LGBTQ+ community are tired as a whole population. Not only is discrimination painful, but educating others on how to kindly treat other people is tiring as well.
A few students commented that they were tired of the expectations placed on them by others, especially parents. Code-switching and attempting to fit the assumptions of other people, especially people in such close proximity to you, such as your parents and friends, can be extremely exhausting. Putting up a facade and working hard toward goals with nothing but extrinsic motivation can so quickly sap a person’s energy. Struggling for things you won’t even be proud of in the end just isn’t worth it. Oftentimes you don’t get much joy out of the completion of such heavy tasks, but instead feel lethargic. The cons outweigh the pros.
We all know this lifestyle is not healthy. As teachers love to remind us, our brains are not yet fully developed. We’re still growing. In reality, teenagers need even more sleep than adults do. And even putting our age aside, it isn’t healthy for human beings to be tired all the time. A person is not able to function as they should on low amounts of energy. Constant drowsiness is simply not good enough.
We all know this, yet we still continue to do what we do. This could just be because we make bad decisions; we procrastinate, we stay up late watching Netflix. Or this could be because we feel we have no choice: if we get enough sleep, we don’t have time for our homework or our sports. Sleep is sacrificed for the sake of our GPA and our commitments.
Will this ever change? These vicious habits have notoriously driven high schoolers crazy for decades, and are likely to continue for decades more. We’re exhausted already, and it’s only November. Here are some of the reasons Why We’re So Tired:
Extracurriculars, including but not limited to sports, clubs, instruments, and performing arts
Staying up late
Not getting enough sleep in general
Not having enough time to do homework
Stress
Math work
History work
Waking up early
English work
Advanced classes
Procrastination
Away games
Being an adolescent
Dealing with problematic teachers
Crying
Friendship issues
Expectations
Stereotypes
Thinking too hard
Talking too much
Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc.
Not having enough time for friends
Insecurities
Carrying heavy things
Aging
Existential crisis
Getting singled out for being a minority
Running around
Eating raw cookie dough while being lactose intolerant
*This list is arranged from the most common to least common responses.