As the school bell rings, students stream through the doors. No, it isn’t June. It’s September 8th and the 2015-2016 school year has just begun. As seniors revel in their long-awaited position at the top of the food chain, juniors leaf through piles of half-finished AP summer homework, and sophomores Thank Goodness that at least they aren’t freshmen, freshmen themselves are stepping into Ridge as high school students for the first time, warily anticipating what Albert Gu ’19 defines as “[the] stigma surrounding high school and its competitiveness, both academically and socially.”

As the academic year gets into full swing and school becomes less about comparing vacation stories and reuniting with friends and more about stressing out and studying for assessments, it’s important not to burn out. Here are a few tips that this junior editor has managed to accumulate about keeping it together during high school:

Procrastination is your worst enemy. Avoid it at all costs.

It doesn’t matter how beguilingly that unwatched TV episode or Twitter feed seems to beckon. As Catherine McDonnell ’17 charmingly summarizes, “Less Netflix, more studying.” Homework, when disregarded, piles up into an intimidating and regret-inducing stack that has kept a certain student up working late into the night on more than one occasion. The sunrise is not pretty when one is running on no sleep.

Emily Arakawa ’15, who is elbows-deep in the college application process, asserts, “Even if you’re a renowned procrastinator, you need to learn time management in order to sleep more. I learned that the hard way—I’m sick now.”

Sleep. Enough said.

Don’t stress out.

Especially in an atmosphere as charged with hyper-competitiveness and ambition as Ridge’s is, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that high school doesn’t determine the rest of your future. In twenty years, no one will remember the quiz that he or she failed back in high school. Arakawa emphatically adds, “Don’t fret about your B’s in past classes and SAT scores. What’s done is done. You will get into a school. The end.”

Know when to say “Yes” and when to say “No.”

Without a doubt, high school is a great time to broaden your horizons and find your niche, as clichéd as those phrases are. For the athletic, there’s a plethora of sports teams to join; for the orator, there’s the Forensics team. Additionally, there’s a club at Ridge for just about any interest, whether it’s Model UN, Ethics Club, Mock Trial, Yearbook, or even the school newspaper. However, it’s essential to know your limits in order to avoid overwhelming yourself with too many obligations.

Collin Montag ’17 muses, “Fitting in that extra club or those extra days of practice for your college résumé might not be worth it with your oncoming workload. It’s important to make decisions while keeping the present in mind, however, it’s also important to keep yourself occupied and make sure you are preparing yourself for the future.”

Don’t do it all for college.

While it certainly doesn’t hurt to partake in activities that will make your college application more impressive, it isn’t necessary to overwork yourself just so that you can dress up said application. Is it worth it to spend four years doing something that is neither enjoyable nor constructive, only doing it for the sake of writing it on your college application?

After all, you’re only in high school once.