Essay #2
Lian Prost-Hughart
Struyk-Bonn
English 121
2 December 2014
Benefits of Stress and Academic Challenges
Stress is good. This is a sentence that not many people expect to hear, however it is true. There are three classifications of stress: acute, episodic acute, and chronic. What do these phrases mean, and how are they good for you? Let us begin with acute stress; acute stress is your body’s reaction to pressure and sudden taxing demands, whether emotional or physical. When you have constant acute stress, due to a disorganized, exhausting work schedule, or a complicated family situation, this can develop into episodic acute stress. If this continues or worsens, it can eventually lead to chronic stress, the kind that causes severe health problems or even suicidal tendencies. So what, exactly, is the good news? We as students, or graduates of any high school or college, have received far more than a basic education. Schools are the ideal training ground for dealing with stress. In fact, tackling academic challenges shapes who your are as person; it teaches you how to handle stress, manage a busy schedule, and become a determined worker.
School is one of the only places that constantly challenges your knowledge. From trigonometry to the history of the Ming dynasty, students are constantly being accosted with academic challenges. Much importance is laid on the results of testing and the level of understanding demonstrated through reports and essays. All these instances lead students to confront acute stress. That is why we can say that how a student reacts to academic challenges either makes them or breaks them. But how does it shape them as a person? Students must, from an early age, learn to prioritize. This means much more than choosing whether or or not to finish a homework assignment instead of watching TV. It involves creating goals, accomplishing them successfully, and rating their activities by importance, so as not to waste their time. It oftens means reaching compromises and sacrificing things that they would rather do for the things they have to do. This is a life skill that cannot be taught without first having undergone stress. After facing the consequences of poor time management, students understand fully the importance of their work and learn to handle their stress through preparation, delegation, and prioritization.
One of the major skills students master after being exposed to academic challenges is controlling a schedule. Often thought of as a skill essential in the workplace, managing a schedule is more difficult than it seems. It involves respecting others time, deadlines, and activities. Without a proper schedule, assignments would quickly pile up and homework would become a daunting task. Scheduling while at school can be as simple as knowing when you need to be in a certain classroom, or as complex as juggling several extra-curricular activities in addition to your core classes. Without the opportunity that school provides to experiment with different methods of organizing your activities and prioritizing, many students would be ill-prepared for the workforce. Academic challenges, such as group projects and studying for a mid-term, are often very difficult to organize without a proper agenda of when you study group will be available or who can go buy supplies and where the supplies can be bought. If you tackle such challenges head on, with the help of an organized schedule, you come out on top as the victor and as a responsible adult.
Not many consider the significant way in which academic challenges shape your personality and work ethic by making you into a determined worker. The old adage of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is a very appropriate description of the schooling system that we receive here in the United States. Students must develop a strong will to dedicate time to studying, confront their weaknesses, as well combat their stress. It is very common for students to retake assignments, and as determined workers they do not allow their short-term failure to impede their long-term success. This attitude bred by schools is a key attribute of the hard-working men and women who carry this country on their back: politicians, policemen, teachers, health professionals, and journalists. Without having gone through a rigorous schooling system that demanded answers to difficult academic challenges, it might not have been possible to build this country into the independent nation it is today.
Indeed, we are shaped by our reaction to academic challenges and pressures. Though not completely mature by the time of graduation, school does prepare students to face real world obstacles that could potentially destroy them. Thankfully, as each new generation steps of the stage with their diploma they have learned to be determined workers who manage their stress and their schedules with a practiced ease, ready to continue their growth into perceptive, well-rounded citizens. It is clear then that, sometimes, stress is good.
