I come to you live from 2 in the morning. I’m on my fourth caffeinated drink of the day and already have plans to wake up an hour earlier to do the homework that I don’t intend to finish tonight. I am sleep deprived, attempting to apply for college and regretting every scheduling decision I made last spring. Let this article be a warning to you, and please, heed it.

I was once like you, a bright-eyed, optimistic student with her entire high school career ahead of her. I did my homework the day it was assigned, in between classes and on the bus ride home. I aced tests and went to school feeling refreshed from the lavish nine hours of sleep I had just enjoyed. I was on top of it, and I foolishly believed that I could maintain this behavior throughout my four years at West Forsyth. Spoiler alert: I couldn’t.

My train of thought was constantly running along the track of GPA calculations, class rankings, leadership positions I could gain, extracurriculars I could join and service opportunities; I searched for anything that could buff up my resume. At the same time, I began to increase my course load. My sophomore year, I took one Advanced Placement (AP) class, my junior year I took four and now, during my senior year, due to some unsound reasoning and idealistic tendencies on my part, I am taking five AP courses, and I am struggling through every second of it.

In high school today, AP culture has taken over. Even though there are countless articles that preach the quality over quantity mantra, stress how colleges don’t want to see a transcript jam-packed with AP classes and tell horror stories of sleepless, homework filled nights, this culture persists, because every student believes they will be different and colleges haven’t done anything to refute this. Despite the fact that most collegiate institutions don’t have minimum AP course requirements; students with higher AP frequencies have consistently better acceptance rates. What students often fail to understand, however, is that even if they are capable of completing their work on time and keeping up with a rigorous course load, they’re bound to burn out sometime. I did, and I’m here to implore you to make different choices and ensure you don’t suffer the same fate.

Burnout is an unpleasant and recognized psychological phenomenon that high-achieving students are often plagued by. Where a person was once highly productive, motivated and appreciative of their accomplishments, undue amounts of stress and pressure slowly cause the individual to feel exhausted, cynical and incapable. Burnout syndrome does not happen shortly, but is the product of months to years worth of stress; however, once you’re burnt out, it’s incredibly hard to reignite your flame. The good news is that this seemingly hopeless burnout is entirely preventable by making just a few life changes.

To ensure you don’t crash and burn, please, I beg of you, from the bottom of my heart, allot time for you to do what you love. If you don’t, then everything else around you will begin to sour. Pursue your passions to the ends of the earth and you’ll find that self-satisfaction people often search for in straight A’s and honor roll certificates. Make sure you have some room to breathe in your schedule; you’ll thank yourself later for rolling back on AP courses when faced with college essays and extracurriculars and the overall hustle and bustle of life. Don’t subject yourself to unnecessary pressures that stem from an overwhelming desire to succeed; instead, allow yourself time to learn and grow at a comfortable pace, and everything else will fall into line. And I know, you’ve heard this advice a thousand times, but please, take this testimonial to heart, because if you don’t, I guarantee you’ll regret it.