Everyone says that high school is the best time of your life. Remember those parties and those dances and those cute boys, say all the adults?

They tell me that I don't want to grow up, because I will have to go work every day and take care of myself (buying my own food and paying my own bills). But at this point in my high school career, that's not sounding too bad.

It's college prep time, and that means taking ACT and SAT practice tests, and reading books on standardized testing, and going to test prep classes, and ultimately taking the SAT, ACT, subject tests, APs, etc.

Up until this year I thought I was stressed enough. I had overwhelming amounts of homework that kept me up late on school nights and two-hour sports practices every day (often including Saturdays), and on top of that I still wanted to be actively involved in my nonathletic extracurriculars.

Now, it's all different. For example, last Saturday I was home for maybe a few hours tops between 8 a.m. and 11p.m. doing an assortment of activities, which now must include college preparation work. I had sports, ACT prep, errands to run, and prescheduled activities; by the end of the day I was so exhausted I just wanted to collapse.

Don't get me wrong. I love the activities that I do! But there is definitely a difference between waking up at 8 a.m. for a required practice, and sleeping in and getting my own downtime.

I wake up to my alarm and see my younger brother and mom still sleeping. I call in the afternoons and they're at home watching TV or on the Internet. When I finally get home at night they're already in bed asleep. If I can't go back in time to those wonderful middle school days, then right now I would like to skip these years and just go straight to adulthood.

This year, on top of doing all the things I had been doing before, I have to make time to prepare for the standardized tests coming my way. Between taking the actual tests, there are practice tests to take, books to read, and a lot of SSO information to fill out (including everything from resumés to essays). It feels like there aren't enough hours in the day!

I come to school feeling worn out, but at the same time I know that I need to get a good amount of sleep and stay healthy so as not to get sick before my ACT this coming weekend (after which, I will finally have a few weeks off before my next standardized test and therefore plan to rejoice by taking the entire rest of Saturday off).

Looking at the subbies and freshmen I wonder how they can think their schedules are strenuous. At the same time, though, as an underclassman I wondered why the upperclassmen complained so much each year (they knew it was going to happen right?).

If I could give any advice to underclassmen right now it would be this: Enjoy it while you have it. Free time is a major luxury. Spend your time wisely, and the more you do now, the less chance you will be like another one of those "complaining juniors/seniors."

As for me, if any seniors have advice for me and my fellow classmates, I'm looking forward to hearing it from people who have actually survived all this work and stress!