It's September; that means it's back-to-school time. Some students are excited, others are nervous, and there are of course a vast majority of students that are just plain depressed. The relaxation and freedom of the summer is refreshing, and who wants to give all that up to sit in a classroom and be assigned a ton of work? Who wants to relinquish their sleeping in and tanning to homework and testing and most of all: pressure.

As an honors and AP student, pressure has played a huge part of my life since, oh, about the 4th grade. I am definitely not a stresser, but I recognize and understand the (ridiculously high) expectations that loom over me. The pressure is that little black raincloud that follows me from AP class to AP class. It's the reason I've been enrolled in 4 APs this year - my junior year. (Who thought that was a good idea?)

I'm definitely sick of it; I would rather be working five days a week like I did all summer than return to grades, hours and hours of homework, testing, and all the negatives of school. I could so easily love school, but this ceaseless pressure can certainly ruin the fun.

Does pressure or stress alter your school experience in any way?