Lost all motivation junior year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’m currently a junior
And I lost all motivation to do anything this year.

So here’s some background info:

Throughout high school, I have maintained all A’s in both freshman and sophomore year. Typically, between my friends and I, I would always score a couple points higher on the majority of the tests, so the friendly competition encouraged me to stay on track so I can always do better than them and served as a form of satisfaction.

However, as junior year rolled up, I began to slip into a what I thought was just a temporary slump. On the first week of school, I miserably failed my first quiz in chemistry which really hurt both my grade and my desire to excel in the class. The teacher is also bad and gave out quizzes that do not pertain to the lessons taught in class, so I didn’t know what to study and ended up failing every quiz for the rest of the semester. This ended up hurting me for my other classes as well since I had chemistry first period, and knowingly failing the exam first thing in the morning screwed my mind for other tests for other classes for the rest of the day. This sounds like a dumb excuse but I think it actually did play some role in my overall poor grade.

In addition, my friends who I would always score better than on exams are starting to do better than me this year which I also believe added on to me losing hope and motivation. While some may believe it could have served as a trigger to motivate myself to work harder to get better grades than them, it did the opposite and made myself believe that I have permanently fallen off track, and there is no other way to get myself back together. It is easy to tell myself that I can work harder and it will be easy to get back on track and succeed, but my body just won’t cooperate, and I don’t know why. As a result, I ended the semester with an 89 while my friend ended with a 90 for the same class I used to be diligent and hardworking, and I would get things done, but now it seems to be not the case anymore.

On top, my SAT and ACT grades are extremely low, and I don’t know how to bring them up nor have the motivation to study for them. They are just sitting in the back of my mind and I just can’t bring myself to try harder. I do have big dreams and aspirations, yet for some reason this year, I just can’t motivate myself to achieve them. Also, my parents have started telling me that I should stop trying to reach for big dreams and settle for something less and just be satisfied with it (I told them I wanted to be a doctor like my siblings, but they told me to just work towards being something less because I will never be able to work as hard as my siblings to achieve such a big goal). Honestly, hearing such discouraging words from my own parents really struck me and pushed me even further down into my “slump” to the point where I really don’t know where to begin to get myself back up.

This “slump” I thought would last me maybe until the first few weeks of school ended up haunting me for the rest of the semester, and I’m scared it will continue to be the case for the rest of the year or even for the rest of my life. I just lost every motivation in pushing myself to achieve my goals and succeed in my interests in life, and I just don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’ve been feeling dreary hopeless and can’t quite grasp where it all even began and how it managed to take over my life so negatively in such a short period of time. I am also wondering if all this is an early sign of depression or anything else that could lead to potential major damage. I am asking for advice from those who may have gone through the similar situation as me and how to get myself back up and running. Thank you.

2

I feel into a similar thing freshman year. I had a D in an engineering class for around three weeks and it was very upsetting. I was then a straight A student, and the prospect of a terrible grade like that I was not used to. I couldn’t focus in my other classes as well and my teachers knew something was wrong. So I know what you’re going through.

I have the same problem with my parents, except it’s almost flip flopped. I possibly want to be math teacher, but they degrade that choice as something that quote on quote, “I could do better than”.

With that being said, I have a few things for you to consider:

1). Try talking to your chemistry teacher. I know this seems daunting, but it will really help you. See if they can offer you any help. If that teacher can’t, ask another chemistry teacher or teacher with a background in chemistry to try and explain concepts to you. If all else doesn’t work, get a tutor or have classmates help.

2). Go to the guidance consoler. I know this sounds very embarrassing. But confiding in a professional that has a background for a situation like this will help you with your situation. Also note that guidance consolers have to keep confidentiality (at least I think so) unless you talk to them about something that will harm you or others. So telling the guidance consoler some personal info like this won’t be spilt to your parents or teachers.

3). Come up with a goal plan to improve. I did this and it helped me SO MUCH realize that one grade isn’t everything. I ended up getting a good grade in the course, but it was only after the fact that I came up with a good academic and personal game plan.

I hope you get your situation figured out! :slight_smile:

3

I was in a very similar situation too where my friends started doing better than me and my parents are telling me to “stop trying so hard.”

I knew that I won’t be get back in track anytime soon, so I set a date for myself, I let my self feel depressed for another week, and told myself that this is the last week I’ll ever be like this. On the last day of the week, I let myself cry and thought about why I lost my motivation again. Then I realized how much time I wasted on unnecessary things and I promised myself that today is the last day I would be like this, tomorrow the inspired and motivated me will be back.

And this actually helped me. Being sad about it or keeping thinking about it won’t help, it’ll just get worst, instead, let yourself relax for a day and cry or do whatever you feel like doing and release all the burden, then tell yourself that this is the last time I would do this, tmr I will be fine again.

Hopefully this helped and remember that happiness can be obtained from small little things, enjoy it and smile!

Lastly, you are intelligent and you are special! So don’t try to prove me wrong :slight_smile:

4

You got straight A’s 9th and 10th and an 89 made you a little unmotivated? First of all relax and if your friends getting higher grades causes you to think this way, that’s not good. The parents thing I can understand why that caused lost motivation. A good idea may be talking to your siblings and ask them if they ever had something like this. Honestly a few Bs won’t desotry your gpa. Try to turn that 89 to a 90 for an A for the second semester you’ll be fine.

I wasn’t as motivated my freshman year as I am now and I basically did the opposite of what you doing. Had like 5-6 Bs in 9th and had a 3.5 I think gpa. After getting 3.8s 10th and 11th and this first semester 12th being a 4.0 I got a 3.8 gpa now, which is a good step up from starting with a 3.5. Don’t think a few bad grades will be the end of the world. I got accepted to everywhere I applied for college and got some scholarships too.

Don’t let one bad semester lose your confidence, you have so many other ones that colleges will see, so focus on those.