“You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights” - Dr. Seuss

In the midst of the school year students are often found overwhelmed, overworked, stressed, burnt out and experiencing a whole range of turbulent emotions. Internal after internal begins to pile up for seniors, and juniors also face end of topics tests. Add our winter school sport goes into overdrive, there's often a part-times job, other extracurriculars on the go, add in 'trying to have a personal life' and you are left with never-ending barriers.

As Mathematics prefectm, and how fitting it may seem, I like to look at these challenging times as a math problem. As you sit down in the exam room, legs jittering, clicking your pen in and out and looking at the paper in front of you, what do you feel? My best guess is a great deal of anxiety and uneasiness. This is what many of our students face from day-to-day.

The clock hits 9:30am and you open the first page. Barriers come in many forms but for you, this time, it comes as a problem to solve - a long word answer algebra question. The pages of empty lines waiting to be filled with numbers tell you how difficult it is without even having to read the question. This question, this barrier relates to the challenges faced by students-especially in the middle of the busy year. Whether it be a four credit internal due next Monday, pulling the busy Friday night shift at your local restaurant, or rushing to get a family member's birthday gift you’ve yet to purchase, each small obstacle adds up and can often leave us feeling overwhelmed.

You begin to read the question, underlining the important numbers as you go. You reach the end feeling lost as to how to start but as you read over it again you gain a better understanding about what you are being asked to find and can begin to form the process for how you will do it. Much like the challenges of student-life, we too must do the same. We can break big things down into manageable steps and chunks.

The process and some key tips…

• Set goals: having something to aim for will keep you on track and able to hold yourself accountable.
• Reflect: take time for yourself to sit down, look at everything on your plate, breathe, understand what you have to do and how you will do it.
• Speak: whether it be to a family member or a close friend, talk to someone, don’t hold everything in.
• Take action: make a plan, a timetable or schedule that will help you tackle each barrier in a way that is best for you and your mental health.

After following the process and working through the 'maths' of the problem you reach a final answer in a fashionably timely manner. You read over it again, fix any small mistakes and finish feeling accomplished with your work and answer. This leaves you with a sufficient amount of time to tackle the rest of 'the paper' that is the day ahead. 

Facing the challenges of student-life can be difficult but just like a tricky maths question if we follow a process, know what we want to achieve, plan it out, and face it head on, we will accomplish it. These challenges are the tests of life and without them we wouldn’t be who and where we are today. Being aware of our mental health as well as that of others will help us to overcome these barriers. As Dr Seuss has said: “You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights”.

Written by Bianca Stephens.