Stress-Mckenna Elliott

Taking five AP classes my junior year, of all years, was not the best decision I've made thus far, to say the least. The past 8 months of my life have led up to the next week and a half: AP tests. The stress consumes me, as you can probably imagine, but I have a few stress relieving rituals for times like these. 

I would not call studying for AP tests stressful, but overwhelming. I get stressed out when I'm not studying for AP tests and I know I should be, but I get stressed out when I actually am studying for them because I realize how much there is to do! When this happens, I usually go to the Tates Creek Branch of the public library (because of its convient location for me and it is relatively larger and quieter than other libraries) and turn on a Spotify studying playlist with no lyrics and crank out the work. This relieves my stress because the soothing music calms me down and helps me concentrate more, so I get more stuff done and therefore I have less to stress about when I'm finished. 

More generally, when any kind of test or homework is stressing me out, I run or work out. If I've been stumped on one assignment for a while or am getting impatient or frustrated, I make myself put down my work and run it off. On beautiful stressful days like yesterday, I run about 3 miles before I will allow myself to get back to my work. On less stressful days, it may be just a few jumping jacks and squats or a light jog up the street and back. This is my favorite way to rid myself of school stress, or any stress for that matter. It makes me feel better inside and out. 

I would not have made it through junior year if it weren't for these stress relievers. This has truly been a challenging year, but I'm glad that I learned these methods now so that I'll be well-prepared in the future for any kind of stressor that is thrown my way.