Lately a realisation has overcome me, one which is a hard lesson to grasp. As vital as our studies, our education, our work, and other responsibilities, we must learn the importance of letting go. I have written countless articles on the media\u2019s harrowing message of \u2018productivity\u2019 over everything, but I think it is the most soul-destroying message to be promoting. This is especially aimed at the teenagers like myself who are in their last year of secondary school, or last year of sixth form. The pressure to achieve highly, meet deadlines, revise until our eyes are watering, until the words can\u2019t sit still on the page anymore, lack of sleep evident from the darkness underneath the eyes, socialising is put behind everything else. This academic pressure, along with the pressure of life in general is a weight that can become so incredibly heavy, that it affects you to the point of unhappiness, of emotional draining. Missing out on a social life in such a difficult academic year is almost enough to break a person. This is the year when friendships, relationships, family, parties, fun, trips are most needed.\u00a0 You must find adventure and find happiness within this next year. You must learn that as much as high grades will help your future, destroying every part of yourself for them leaves you with much more than a low grade\u2026It leaves you with nothing, no part of you left. You have no chance at the future you dreamed of because the part of you which enjoyed parties, which enjoyed going out for meals with friends, enjoyed being in the company of others, of the excitement of new relationships blooming, the hobbies you enjoy, they continue being an enjoyed instead of a present tense enjoy. You realise you have nobody left, because you have isolated yourself so much that everyone has done the same to themselves. The pressure is the breaking point for many. The revision is too much. So, you must learn to live your life as well as this. You must learn that parties are okay. That going out with family is fine. That having a new friendship during this year is brilliant. Putting your life on hold will never work out. Ever. You can\u2019t expect everything to stop when you enter this year, or when you enter a hard or difficult academic\/ work year for yourself. Burning yourself out with trying to achieve the very best will only have the same result. You won\u2019t achieve this unrealistic goal and will have lost more than just your academic dreams, but also you will have lost time. Revision, School, and work shouldn\u2019t be everything. You need to have balance. You must allow yourself to let go. Whether that be something as small as a coffee date and a walk with a friend, or as fun as a party with friends, you have to let yourself go sometimes \u2013 especially throughout the last year of School\/ college. In order to do well you need breaks, and it is vital that you have a support system around you too. More knowledge and education is often learned through new experiences than it is through academia sometimes. You may learn more by getting out, or it may simply just lower your stress levels\u2026But you must do this. Learn to not be productive everyday, to have rests, to have breaks, to have weekends away, to take chances at new relationships and not use the excuse that its \u2018an important year\u2019. Your life can\u2019t be put on hold when this happens. There will be many other very \u2018important years\u2019, and if you keep adapting this mindset of \u2018I must concentrate entirely on School\/ Uni\/ College or my job\u2019 then you\u2019ll find you are missing out on life. This is tough to realise, but I hope after reading this, if you\u2019re in my same position, a GCSE student, that you take my advice and let go. Let go. But concentrate. Let go. But make an effort. Let go, and relax. Don\u2019t miss out on this final year. You deserve it.<\/p>\n
Article by a Young Reporter <\/p>\n\n Lately a realisation has overcome me, one which is a hard lesson to grasp. As vital as our studies, our education, our work, and other responsibilities, we must learn the importance of letting go. I have written countless articles on the media\u2019s harrowing message of \u2018productivity\u2019 over everything, but I think it is the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[626],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-5TH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22673"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22675,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions\/22675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>First published in Grimsby Telegraph November 2021<\/em><\/p>\n