Seniors Give Stress Advice

Stress is a common thing for teens to deal with, especially at a school as challenging as Seattle Prep.

Senior Sadie McCann reflected on the most stressful moments she’s had as a student at Prep. “College apps have been very stressful because of the deadline. There’s not as much guidance as big projects like UN, which makes it a lot harder. UN was also pretty stressful because it’s such a big project and there’s so much pressure for it. The Junior Research Paper was also pretty stressful.” Many things can add to the stress factor of being a student hard at work.

There are also many other factors that can make Prep a more stressful environment for Panthers. McCann added, “I think a lot of students do sports and that’s often stressful, especially if you’re pretty competitive in your sport. Also homework—there’s a lot of homework at Prep. It’s quite hard to balance your social life [with everything else going on]. Sometimes there can seem like there’s cliques and it can be stressful to navigate that kind of stuff as well, especially for Freshmen.”

Mason Fleischauer ’18 said, “Everyone’s studying so many different things and it’s hard to prioritize everything you’re learning and all the stuff going on in your life.” Fleischauer and McCann summed up the daily stressors that are common for Panthers.

McCann has many techniques she has discovered over her years at Prep to help combat stress. “It is important to try techniques to cope with stress until you find the one that works best for you. I would say, my advice is to try out different ways [to cope with stress] and go through a bunch of ways until you find one that works for you, like coloring, working out, or meditation, or something like that.”

Fleischauer also has valuable advice for younger students at Prep. “Do your homework early, and do A day homework on A days, and B day homework on B days.” Fleischauer and McCann explained the best ways to get rid of stress using easy and simple techniques.

Students at Prep can be quite familiar with stressful situations, but with a few tips and tricks from the experienced Seniors, any student can get through it.