The last lap.

Despite what the little pessimistic voice in the back of all our heads might say, there will be an end to the all of the stress laid on each and every one of us by school. For seniors, the stress will be gone a little sooner; obviously, we will all still be attending classes and doing school work, but from the moment we get back to school after Christmas, there will be a sense that it’s the last lap of a long, hard-fought race that we need only finish.

The night is darkest just before the dawn, and I’d say that the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty nebulous. The ho-ho-ho’s and jingling bells of the holiday season get drowned out by lists of equations and explanations of passages that seem to get less and less relevant with every passing minute. As the frustrations build and build, little things that once brought joy barely chip away at the overwhelming, frantic mess.

But during these stressful times, it is also incredibly important to keep things in perspective. It is easy to forget that in a short time the past will be past, and we will be able to move on to new things, taking with us what we have learned from these trying times. One day, we will be able to look back on these times with perhaps a bit of, yes, humor. To quote a Family Guy spoof of One Tree Hill “high school is such a serious thing…these problems matter.”

While I know this is satirical, it can still caution us about to needlessness of letting the stress and frustration, whether it’s suffering through classes or not being able to connect with the people around you, overwhelm the positive attributes of your given situation and the knowledge that high school, too, shall pass.

In the senior English classes, we read the quote from Doctor Zhivago that Chris McCandless circled in his dying moments: “Happiness is only true when shared,” and we feel that a realization such as that rings true, especially at this time of year.

A good grade can bring happiness as quickly as a bad grade can take it away, but when we look back on our high school years, the points that stand out are not the noteworthy DBQs we wrote or the hours we spent studying for math tests that ceased to be relevant as soon as they were turned in. The highlights of our high school careers are the hours spent laughing with friends while loitering in parking lots, the great concerts that leave our vocal cords ragged and hoarse from exuberant screams, and the football games that fill our entire body with warmth and energy despite the freezing rain. We encourage anyone reading this article, as they leave their exams, to take a deep breath. It won’t make your grade any better, but taking a moment just to breathe will remind you that regardless of your performance on your high school exams, you are still alive.