Teachers pressure us. School counselors pressure us. Parents pressure us. Classmates pressure us. We pressure ourselves. We, as Uni students, seem to be under so much pressure that pressure is starting to not even look like a real word anymore.

Grades, test scores, college, sports, music, drama, and volunteering are all important things to us and to the people looking out for us, but there is something that could be even more important.
How about … our sanity?

Uni students seem to be involved in everything, spending all of their time studying or working or volunteering or playing an instrument or playing a sport that they barely have time to think, let alone maybe enjoy a good trashy TV show every once and awhile.

We get so caught up in what we feel like we must do to keep everyone happy. Everyone, that is, except maybe ourselves. We get so busy worrying and hurrying that we kind of end up forgetting to live life. We stop being kids before we really have to, and end up missing out on what could be some really amazing times.

College isn't going to matter in the slightest if we all go crazy before we even get there. I witness it all the time. Students have little nervous breakdowns because of one test or one little thing that no one is going to care about in a few years.

When we get out of here, when we're in the real world, no one is going to care about some calculus test you took junior year. They will care about what type of person you are. If you spend all of your time in high school worrying and studying and filling up every moment of every day, you'll never have time to become any type of person, and you'll never really be very happy either.

A lot of kids love to play sports, but many coaches push athletes to their outermost limits, consuming all of their time and energy in order to win. Grades end up suffering, forcing athletes to give up their free time to sit in the prison-like study hall.

I have always loved my free time. I love not having anything that I absolutely have to do. I love having the freedom to do whatever I may feel like doing. My parents worry that I spend the time I have watching stupid TV shows or joining new Facebook groups or rereading Harry Potter books, but I feel like these things are keeping me from losing my mind, from freaking out because I'm overloaded with things I have to do.

People have sometimes wondered why I'm so happy all the time, and not depressed or angry like a lot of other people seem to often be. It's because I take the time to relax, to take a deep breath, to remind myself of what's really important.

So next time you've got one of those rare free moments, you could study for that history test that's coming up in two weeks, or you could sit down on the couch, turn on the TV, and learn absolutely nothing for half an hour or so. You might even laugh once or twice.