Every day students wake up, go to school, possibly go to work or sports, come home and do their homework. Everyone is just doing their best to prepare for the future. Get good grades and stay on top of things in order to get into a good college. Getting into a good college will lead to a good life… right?

 “It’s common for teens to worry about the future. Many kids worry they won’t get into college or get a job, or fail once they do,” said understood.org. Good grades = good college = good future job = money = success. At least that is what everyone always says. The stress of not doing well enough in school or not being involved in enough extracurriculars continues to pile up for many teens around the U.S. This stress may cause students to stay awake late into the night, just trying to complete their school work. No one wants to see that dreaded F or D when they log on to check their grades. So, they do what they can to avoid it. 

What will happen if they fail a class or not do well on the ACT? The fear of not meeting either their parents, their own or even society’s standards is just unbearable. It is impossible to know what the universe has planned for students after high school. Everyone is just doing their best to prepare for a good future. In the end, the goal is just to make money and be successful. Nobody wants to be the one with a low paying job and a sad apartment when they grow up. 

It can be so common for people to look at those they see on social media or even others in their class and compare themselves. They may look at their lives and wish that is what they had. They think one day that could be them. If only they work hard enough to get there. Again, the stress of receiving good grades begins to set in. Rather than taking life as it comes and enjoying each precious moment, teens and high school students’ minds spiral out of control with irrational thoughts about how their life may not work out and result in shambles. “Life unfolds only in moments, so the best way to handle things that come your way is to tackle one thing at a time,” said mindfullyevie.com.

Fear of the future and fear of failure is inevitable. In the end, everyone has their own goals and idea of what a successful future looks like as well as their own plan of how to achieve this. Getting caught up in a dream life is so common among people. The fact is nobody actually knows what the future has to hold. “The moment you experience right now is the only moment you can control. You cannot control what will happen in a year’s time, let alone what will happen in the next five minutes,” said mindfullyevie.com.

No matter how hard one works they can’t change or control the outcome. It is easy to dwell on a dream future life beyond high school and forget what you have now. Life is all just one big guessing game, so try not to get so caught up with the what if’s in life and instead just live and enjoy the now.