At some point in every person’s life, they feel the pressure of school. This can be at any point, and it’s something everyone feels. Something not everyone experiences is the pressure of not just school, but trying to balance that with the pressure of work or sports, sometimes both.
High school students across the nation are constantly balancing the pressure of school life, work, or sports, and their free time. The students at Lakeland High School are no strangers to this balance, and there is a large variety of kids who work, participate in sports, or do both.
Sports are a big part of high school life, whether you’re on the bench, court or field, or in the bleachers. The athletes face a big challenge with this; they make the choice to participate in their sport, so when they have something they are required to attend, they sacrifice their time for it, creating a challenge in completing schoolwork.
Freshman Madison Justesen is one of these students. She plays volleyball year-round, committing two to three hours of her time to practice every day she has practice. School season is five days a week while club is two days.
Justesen says it messes with her time a little bit, with long days on the weekends and lost time during the week. She feels like she misses time with her friends, as well as time to make up her school work. She misses a lot of school in the second semester for her club season, which means she has to dedicate a lot of her time to making up her work. The most challenging part is having to learn a lot of things herself.
“I get less learning time, so I don’t get the teaching. I have to learn it myself,” Justesen said.
She has to dedicate more time to her schoolwork because of how much she misses, creating a hit to her grades. She is currently suffering from her most recent travel tournament. She tries to get her work done before she leaves for tournaments so she doesn’t have to worry about it when she gets back.
Sometimes, though, that isn’t an option, which means she has to dedicate her free time and time with friends to catching up on schoolwork. It also poses the challenge of fighting to keep her grades up.
“I think just missing so much school impacts your ability to learn. It’s harder to understand concepts,” Justesen said.
Justesen hopes to go to college for volleyball. She’s going to go regardless, since she wants to get a degree, but getting to go and play would be amazing for her.
Her commitment to her sport right now will be good practice for that, teaching her how to balance and budget her time to make sure she can still make time for everything important to her.
Freshman Aspen Cluster is another student athlete. She does cheer, which is a Monday through Friday commitment. She said it takes about three hours a day from her free time, but for her, it doesn’t interfere with her school life too much.
“It’s just keeping your grades up so it doesn’t interfere that much,” Cluster said.
Her grades have taken a hit in the past because of cheer, when she struggles to find the time in between school and cheer to get her homework done. She does it, though, keeping her grades high enough to cheer. It’s easier for her because she hardly misses school for it.
“I just stay focused and do what I can in class so I don’t have to do it later,” Cluster said.
She doesn’t plan on going anywhere past high school with cheer, but for right now, it’s something to keep her entertained and in shape during the year since she doesn’t have any other extracurriculars.
Junior Jenna Olson is yet another student-athlete juggling her time. She plays tennis five days a week from March to April, dedicating about two hours every day to it. Her meetings are usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though sometimes they are on Mondays and Wednesdays, with the occasional Friday meeting.
Olson’s involvement in tennis really cuts into her homework and free time. She doesn’t really get a lot of time to herself.
“I go home, do my homework, maybe watch like an episode of a show, and then that’s it,” Olson said.
She doesn’t miss too much school for it, but just trying to find the time in between the time she gets home from school and the time she goes to practice makes it difficult to stay on top of homework and find time for herself. Her grades haven’t really suffered from it, but she does miss out on other things she enjoys.
“I can’t read as much as I want to,” Olson said.
If she can, Olson will make up work while on the bus to a game. If not, she’ll just try to do it later that night. Her best hack for keeping on top of things is to do what she can in class so it’s not as much later on, and then work based on priority; if something’s due the next day, that’s what she focuses on, even if something else might be a bigger assignment that’s not due for a few days.
“If you have time for stuff, then you do it, and if you don’t, then it’s okay,” Olson said.
Olson plans on continuing lessons with tennis and continue playing for fun after high school.
Sports are a really great way for kids to practice the need for balance in life, and the Lakeland kids know it all too well.
On the other side of it, a lot of high schoolers work through the school year. Everyone has their reasons for it, whether it be job security, feeling accomplished, paying for their own things, or saving for college. This choice, again, poses a challenge for the students: they are sacrificing their time, creating an obstacle when it comes to their schoolwork.
Junior Soli Landin is one example of this. She works at Hokkaido Ramen in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She works three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 4 in the afternoon to about 8:30 or 9 at night. She’s a busser, so she serves tables and packs orders.
Landin’s job does pose a challenge. She works during the school week, so she loses a lot of time to do homework or have personal time. She only has about an hour from the time she gets home to the time she has to leave to do her homework until after she gets home from work. She also loses time with family because when she’s home, no one else is, and it’s harder to make it to her dad’s house every weekend.
“The last month or so, I haven’t had time to drive to my dad’s house on the weekends, so I haven’t actually been at his house in a while,” Landin said.
Landin does keep up her schoolwork, however. She makes a habit of prioritizing school and putting her phone down to keep up her grades. When she’s at work, if it’s slow, she’s able to pull her phone out and do online assignments or study during her shift.
She’s also lost some time for her crafting, a big hobby of hers. She’s planning on painting her bedframe but hasn’t had time so far, focusing instead on work and school.
Additionally, junior Jackie Robbins works throughout the school year. She’s currently at the Hayden Noodle Express in the Prairie Shopping Center. She is a cashier and server, so she’ll take orders, answer questions about the menu, give them their food, and clear their table when they’re done. She works up to four days a week after track season is over. Saturdays are 12 to 9 p.m., Sundays are 3 to 9 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays are 4 to 9 p.m.
She is able to work in a place where, during slow hours, she can sit down and prioritize her schooling and personal activities.
“I actually do bring my backpack and stuff, and I can get my homework and study done when it gets super slow,” Robbins said.
She also reads when it’s slow, keeping up on her personal hobbies in the time she’s not doing much. During her track season, she only works on the weekends, so she’ll lose some time there, but overall, she’s able to keep her grades up without much interference. The only real struggle is finding the time at home when there isn’t much time anywhere else to do her schoolwork.
Robbins sometimes struggles to find the time to hang out with people, however. She’ll make plans but have to cancel because she ends up not having the time to hang out and get her schoolwork done on time. However, she still manages to find the time for everyone, even if that means rescheduling.
Robbins makes sure to use her teacher’s aid class period to catch up on her schoolwork, using that time to get as much done as she can so it doesn’t have to be done later.
Finally, junior Aaliyah Reimche works for the last little bit of the school year at Silverwood Theme Park in the food and beverage department. She is also a cashier, so her duties are similar to Robbins’s. Reimche works every weekend, and once school is out, she’ll be working five days a week. She works from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and sometimes from 11:15 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Reimche’s biggest struggle with working during school is losing the weekends to do her homework. She stays up late normally, so when she loses a day to work on her schooling, it gets even worse.
“It does take away some time for homework, so I often find myself staying up even later than usual. It’s bad,” Reimche said.
This gets even worse because, to make up for lost personal time, she hangs out with people later at night, when she gets home from work. She also loses time with her family because they’ll usually do stuff while she’s at work on the weekends.
Despite this, she’s able to keep her grades up with mostly straight A’s. She’ll sometimes feel like she’s falling behind because she pushes assignments back more than she should. She also loses time for herself, sacrificing time doing absolutely nothing for money and friends.
“I guess that’s okay, but I kind of miss it,” Reimche said.
She also hasn’t had as much time to practice her bass guitar, pushing it back to focus on other things. It makes her a bit sad since she’s passionate about it, but she just doesn’t have the time right now.
Regardless, Reimche manages to keep a good balance between her priorities, even if that means sacrificing some sleep for it.
“You can catch up on sleep the next day,” Reimche said.
High school is an era where students are able to learn how to manage their time and find the balance between priorities in life. It might mean a little bit of sacrifice, but the kids at Lakeland don’t mind; they’re willing to do it if it means they’re able to do the things they love.