I have reached the point where high school is equally as hard as it is enjoyable in all aspects. One of the components that has troubled me most is the concept of not giving up when school challenges me the most. Junior year really has been as stressful and difficult as people in the past have described, and I’ve really struggled in finding ways to manage levels of stress that I would have never imagined going through.

Everyone experiences high school in a different manner, and the main thing that usually troubles us seems to be class rigor. I, like many others, have experienced so much uneasiness solely because of how much my classes push me.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful for the education that I’m receiving and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I know I definitely wouldn’t be a better person than I am without it, but I sometimes feel as if I simply do not belong in the AP classes that I take part in or like I should just give in because I struggle to find success within these classes.

AP Physics is a perfect example of something that stresses me out almost all the time. I love the people and teacher within the class, but I don’t understand anything physics related which doesn’t help my case. Being an AP class, physics moves at a extremely fast pace and most people, including me, just have trouble comprehending such complex ideas, and it all becomes a downhill struggle from there.

I personally have understood a few units, but I’ve absolutely bombed the rest. It was really hard to cope with not understanding a class for the first time and it really took a toll on me the first semester. It was so frustrating to not be able to do anything about my level of understanding, and my mentality became negative real quick; it was there to stay.

After struggling through school for the longest time, I started to really prioritize my thinking. Feeling as if I wanted to give up was getting me nowhere; I wasn’t progressing through what was challenging me at all with such a mentality, and that needed to change in order for anything better to possibly come my way.

Instead of not doing anything about my current situation and continuously finding myself struggling daily, I needed to find it within myself to pull my mind from the depths of this depressing mindset. In working toward this, I finally saw the light.

I needed persistence. I needed to push through the challenges that were thrown in front of me on a daily basis. It was going to take time to work through everything, but with anything good comes the ability to have patience.

There’s a certain beauty to simply not giving up. No matter what situation you find yourself in, giving up will never get you where you want to find yourself. Continue to try. Find what makes you happy and don’t stop until you get just that.

It feels as if life becomes so much easier when you quit pursuing something that may not work out, and that can occasionally be the case. But the best things truly are worth pushing through for, and that’s something I’ve really started taking to heart as of recent. It’s also one of the most difficult concepts that I’ve had to learn. Life moves so fast, it’s hard to teach yourself to persevere for what matters. Progress doesn’t happen at the snap of your fingers, and patience isn’t something learned instantly, it’s developed, which makes it that much harder to achieve.

It doesn’t require full comprehension of the concept to begin trying of course. If there is something that you truly want to figure out yet you may not be able to know right away, take the chance of pushing through and receiving the goals you desire. Keep trying. It sucks, waiting through something is always the worst, but the payoff is tremendous. In continuously attempting to fulfill your desires, your chance for success increases. This is why patience and persistence are such a virtue. If you begin to understand their benefits, improvement is bound to come your way.

I want to end this with something. Casey Neistat, a huge inspiration of mine,  said: “There are always good reasons not to do things, but if it’s something you really have/want to do, the universe has a way of making it ok.” Just go and live your dream. What’s stopping you?