The standard question that young people hear far too often is “what are you going to do with your life?” and “have you decided where to go to college yet?” The monstrous amount of anxiety and stress that comes with attending high school can only be made worse by the pressure of deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life at the young age of 17 or 18.
It is impossible to be a high school student today without acknowledging the ticking time bomb counting down arguably the biggest decision of your life. Why should we be forced to make such an important decision that can completely change our future when we haven’t even finished maturing yet?

Most teenagers start to think about college before they even start high school. Whether it is due to expectations from parents or pressure to maintain academic success, many begin planning their futures before they are even old enough to drive. Instead of encouraging children to enjoy the innocence of their childhood, professionals are telling students that they need to start planning for college as early as the start of middle school. UC San Diego Director of admissions advises to start preparing for college at grade six. That’s a lot for an 11-year-old to take on. This means that pre-teens are starting to obsess over maintaining a GPA and building up the perfect application, instead of enjoying a time in their lives that’s supposed to be stress-free. On the surface, it may appear that kids who get a head start on building their college applications are excelling, but on the inside, they are full of anxiety. 

Starting this process so early can make students feel as if their worth as a person depends on academic success, creating a constant drive to be “perfect” that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Author Alison Berman notes that “the problem with training self-worth to be a reflection of personal achievement is that it leaves that very individual feeling perpetually incomplete and constantly searching for wholeness.” It is simply impossible for teenagers to enjoy their last few years before becoming an adult because they are so focused on whether their ACT score is high enough to gain them admission into their dream college. 

Changes must be made within our school system to relieve at least some of this pressure and make highschooler’s feel like they are less alone. Adults must accept that pressuring children to look perfect on paper is the worst way to help them prepare for their future. The focus needs to be shifted from building up the perfect version of yourself on an application to learning more about your interests and talents through experience. We simply cannot continue to fuel the connection between self-worth and academic achievement in teens and fail to accept that they are whole exactly as they are.