As a student gets home from an afterschool club or sport, they walk into their room and see all the chores they have. She gets her backpack and pulls out the pile of homework he has from the day. She has two tests, a project and assignments due the next day. It’s 11 p.m, she has to wake up early to go to school and has practice later. She realizes how much she has to do in so little time.

The definition of stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous.

Some people start getting stressed out when their parents got divorced, others would include school, home life, or social life.

One cause of stress is to balance school work with social life.

“I think sometimes the stress is not to be social, when you have social time [time to do homework in class]. That’s not all of the stress, there are definitely going to be teachers that have to give out homework, in some of the honors classes they have more lengthy assignments but I think sometimes it is a time management thing and sometimes,” Dance teacher Andrea Downing said. “If you are in sports, involved with your church or something outside of school it’s hard to find time to work on it. Plus teenagers not only like to sleep but need sleep at some point.”

Students get very overwhelmed with the amount of homework, projects or tests in one week, when students are pushed to handle a workload that’s out of sync with their development level, it can lead to significant stress — for children and their parents.

“I get a lot of big tests and everything and a lot of the times I’ll have three projects in a week and then I will have a huge test on Friday.” freshman Tianna Christianson said, “Then all of the sudden I will get to class Monday and they will be like ‘We have a test tomorrow.’ and it’s like oh that’s great,” freshmen Tianna Christianson said. “So then I won’t have enough time to prepare for everything.”

Other students have many ways of handling stress, like running, listening to music, venting to friends or even having comfort support or even making a schedule. Everyone handles their stress differently.

“I always ask students what their coping skills are and if they are healthy. You need to have a healthy outlet when you get stressed, kids like to stay up late and they need to manage their sleeping habits,” Counselor Brandon Outcalt said, “One of the biggest factors of stress is time management and not procrastinating. Stress can be used as a motivator, you just need to learn how to manage it.”

In our modern age of anxiety, many of us are so stressed out that it’s hard to maintain focus on important goals.

“I have high functioning anxiety and with the possibility of genetic and mental depression.” freshman Emily McMahon said, “The anxiety and stress mixes in with the stress, the anxiety builds up over time and stresses me out so I have more than an average person.

Some stress is beneficial — too much stress can wear you down and make you sick, both mentally and physically.

“Sometimes when I get really stressed out I get sad. One time I texted my mom while I was trying to get some absent work done. I texted my mom and I was like ‘I really need a hug right now.” sophomore Kaylee Barrick said. “When she got home she came upstairs and once she hugged me I just started crying.”

Holding in stress or emotions about being stressed isn’t always a good thing like everyone thinks it is, if anything, make a schedule and deal with it slowly.

“Following a 10-point plan to help you manage stress. All of these ideas can lower stress without doing any harm,” an article titled Just for Teens: A personal Plan for Managing Stress said. “None are quick fixes, but they will lead.”