By third period, half of the class is already exhausted. Coffee cups sit empty, phones buzz with notifications that call to the students and assignments blur together into one long checklist.
Burnout is no longer something students joke about during finals week. It has quietly settled into everyday school life, leaving many students and teachers running on fumes before the day even ends this time around the year.
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. Though burnout is mostly associated with school and work, anything can cause people of all ages to feel a sense of burnout.
In a recent KHS survey, many students reported higher levels of burnout during the middle of the school year. The pressure appears to intensify for upperclassmen, who juggle classwork and homework with preparation for life after graduation. Senior Johnathan S shared that school is the primary source of his burnout. “Keeping up with assignments and grades while also completing college admissions is a lot of pressure,” he said. However, academic expectations are not the only contributing factor. Many students also struggle with pressures at home. Keyajah F explained that burnout can simply stem from “the expectations my family has for me.”
Many students that took the survey also had feedback for adults that they felt didn’t understand the complexity and intensity of burnout. Overall, the students expressed that they are not machines to continuously put at work.
One survey question asked, “What do you do to cope when you’re feeling burned out?” Students gave a variety of answers but most found that doing something that they love and truly enjoys helps to get them out of a bad state of mind.
The burnout struggle here in the middle of the school year, at the end of a long cold, icy winter this year is hitting hard. But with March here we are coming up on the final stretch of the school year and hopefully with nicer weather on the horizon we can all find some motivation to finish the year strong.
