News Archives

Balance is Key

5/1/2023

By Lana Peasley, Grade 11

Having a good balance is essential to having a healthy and entertaining life. Having the perfect balance between our personal commitments like being with friends and family and work commitments is one of life's most challenging aspects.

I used to think that being successful required me to do school work for long hours every day and to work hard during those hours with no distractions. The issue with that is I would become burnt out faster than I expected. I became so exhausted from all the work that I no longer had any motivation to do any of my schoolwork. Becoming burnt out had a negative effect on my mental health, as I was always stressed out and exhausted.

This affected both my social life and my academic life, as my grades were not where they should have been.

I also no longer had the motivation to leave the house to hang out with my friends, as I felt that I had to continue pushing myself academically to obtain good grades. This is when I realized that having a proper balance between my schoolwork and my social life is what I needed to thrive.

When I was constantly working, I no longer had the time to create and maintain relationships with the people around me, and I felt that I was drifting away from my friends. I soon realized that having a social life was just as important as doing schoolwork. In

life, everything is about having a perfect balance, and although it is not always easy to find this balance, it is important to constantly work towards having a balance and making sure you're not spending too much time doing one thing and not enough time doing the other.

Now that I am not only prioritizing my academic life, I am also finding that I no longer have a feeling of burnout, and I have more motivation when it comes to studying. This means that I've seen a boost in my grades, as my average has increased by about 5%. But to me, that is not what's important. To me the important part is that my mental health has improved so much more because I no longer feel as overwhelmed as I previously did. Most importantly, I feel like I’m overall a happier person and I hope that my happiness will reflect on my friends and the people around me.

I'm not here to tell you not to study and only hang out with your friends. I'm here to tell you to find a balance between the two because your mental health is so important, and not having the proper mental health will affect you both academically and socially.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Catherine Pulsifer: “Too much of one thing can end up creating stress: This is something that no one needs in their life. But living a life in balance can provide harmony and peace”