THE ECHO

by Cayce Hansel

One of my clearest memories before I entered high school was being told by a random woman in a nail salon the summer after eighth grade, “Just you wait until junior year.” Even as a freshman and especially my sophomore year, all my upperclassmen friends expressed the fact that junior year was going to be my demise, and boy, were they right.

I started off my junior year filled with hope, love, and excitement. My sophomore year was decent! I was just elected into the student government and the new speech captain. I was fresh off the high of getting a four on my first AP test and was excited for the three I had opted to take this year. Boy, oh, boy, did I get my but kicked by them. AP Psychology killed me. I have gotten A’s and B’s my entire life, but I somehow managed to get an F on every test despite studying days in advance. Outside of my classes, I was also failing miserably. I was, and am, working a part-time job on top of all my extracurriculars. All of my classes, job, and club involvement had me ripping my hair out and grinding my teeth. I never had a moment to breathe. I was driving in circles around myself between trying to plan a speech
practice, a morning meeting for student government, and my parents begging me to drive my sister to and from her cheer practice.

All of this busy work and failing at the things I used to be so passionate about, such as speech, debate, and journalism, made me lose the momentum I had at the beginning of the year. I was always tired, and my calendar was constantly filled up. I tried color-coding my planner at the beginning of the year, but I ended up becoming so busy that I just used the same color for everything I needed to get done.

Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely times I enjoyed myself. I’ve made new friends, joined clubs, and enjoyed new experiences. Still, sometimes all of these fun things felt overshadowed by the looming presence of all my assignments due, upcoming competitions, and the looming threat of getting ready for college. Out of all my years of high school, Junior year was the worst. Not to scare any of the underclassmen reading this, the question of what year of high school depends on the person. One of my friends swears
it was her freshman year, and another one of my yearbook friends said senior year stressed her out the most, but for me, nothing will top the jaw-clenching, teething-clenching, and hair-lossing year that was my junior year of high school.