<p>Exactly as the title says. This is extremely CC-esque of me, and it's actually kind of ridiculous, but how do you know when you're just doing too much work for school? Obviously if you end up getting a heart attack from sleep deprivation or having a meltdown and tearing your school down, then you've gone over the edge and it's too late to turn around. </p>
<p>Sleep is essential, and its importance is often taken for granted. Lots of kids think they're superman and can go nights and nights on end with a couple hours a night and think they can get off easy. In reality, studies show that a lack of sleep does nothing but hurt you and only a small percentage of the studying done late into the night will probably be retained. </p>
<p>And of course, we all have and need lives. A lot of kids think that they can study every single friday night, skip every dance, and only have human contact at school, and that they could make it up in college. But is that necessarily true? Is it ever worth it to sacrifice such elements of your life?</p>
<p>And is this self sacrifice becoming the standard for success? As the cliche goes, you are only young once. Maybe back then, it was interpreted as "go have some life changing experiences and enjoy your youth." But has it transformed into "try to learn as much as you can before you grow old and fart all your knowledge out?" All around me, I always see these great students who did so much and so well get rejected by so many schools. It's a scary thought, because no matter how many As you get, no matter how good you are at a sport, there is always someone who can do both. And to me, that's just not human.</p>
<p>I'm a lucky guy. My parents try not to pressure me. Unfortunately, all the pressure on me comes from within. It helps sometimes, but it's mostly self destructive. I'm gonna have to look into getting rid of it. Anyways, I'm one of the few students at my school who isn't driven insane by college. I would honestly be happy at any college, as long as I have the chance to learn from a great teacher. But I do understand that if you want a great education, well, you have to earn it. I love learning, I love history, English, chemistry, psychology. Therefore, I took them as APs. I definitely want to do all of them, and the only way I can do them is by doing them all this year. I also want to learn sign language, but unfortunately, I don't have transportation and maybe that would be a little too crazy.</p>
<p>I'm also not much of a procrastinator, but there is just SO MUCH homework. I get so little sleep on a consistent basis. And on top of that, I have to wake up early because I have PE in the mornings. I have very little time for fun, and I often come home directly from school, take a little break, and then start my homework. I often have to skip meals, like lunch, or sometimes I have to eat late at night. All I do is sit, and I definitely need more exercise. Luckily, at the moment, I have an excuse because I have an injury that's taken away the full mobility of one of my legs, and it won't heal for a few months. But seriously, even though I love all these classes, I'm afraid it's hurting me. I mean, sometimes I get these weird pains in just my left arm, and I remember hearing that people get that in their left arms and shoulders before suffering from heart attacks.</p>
<p>So anyways, I doubt many of you read all of that, but to understand this fully, you probably should read through it all. So to you, what is too much and how do you know? And has too much become the standard?</p>
<p>And just for clarification, I'm not whining about hard work or expecting praise or anything like that. I have a feeling someone's going to misinterpret this as something bad on my part and start ripping me to shreds or something haha</p>
