The first quarter of the school year at Nixa High School is already in the past. The everlasting problem of balancing a student’s school life and home life comes back into the equation. With the struggle of this, it can cause problems in an individual, both mentally and academically. 

A good understanding of why students struggle with balancing their school life and home life can go a long way in trying to improve a student’s mental health.

“I think some of the biggest struggle is especially if you’re going to talk about freshman, because that’s what I have mostly, {a big struggle} is time management,” Freshman Counselor Ashley Finley said. “I think time management is a really hard one, because we like to do things that are fun, and we like to be social, so we spend free time at school being social and having fun, and then when you get home you’re tired out and don’t want to do the homework,” Finley said. “So I think that time management is one of the biggest struggles.” 

A bad balance between home and school life can cause problems mentally.

“I can see some of the things that I experience with students here at school, where sometimes students get depressed,” Finley said. “Sometimes kiddos get overwhelmed and quit trying, I think this is another area where you don’t have a good balance and you’re not able to reach out and talk to somebody, things can get really big when they may not have started out as big.”

A poor balance can cause problems academically. Which could cause problems for students getting a better grade point average, which could affect students chances of getting into a good college.

“A lot of times when students get really overwhelmed they quit trying, and they feel like they can’t get out of the hole that they are in, and so it really affects their grades and performance at school negatively,” Finley said.

Trying to maintain a good balance between school life and a home life is difficult for many students.

“I think it’s because that things get big, and that feelings and emotions get big and we don’t try and talk about it, instead we try and handle it ourselves,” Finley said. “When maybe if you were to go to a teacher and say hey i’m really struggling with this, what can I do to bring my grade up. Or go to your counselor and say hey I really don’t know how to balance my time, or keep track of my assignments and they could help you come up with ideas. A lot of times trying to handle it on your own is a struggle.”

What is an example of having a bad balance between a student’s school life and home life.

“I think not being successful in either one is a bad balance,” Finley said “If you are like failing everything here but  doing great in your personal life or your family life, or working all the time outside of school I think that’s a negative balance,” Finley said “ I think if you are able be successful in both parts then you have a good balance.”

While through all of the negatives, Finley said this about having a good home and school life balance.

“I don’t know if there is anything really specific,” Finley said “I mean time management is going to play into this again, you know if you’re taking care of your school stuff by using Star or tutoring time, or staring for ELO, then you would have more free time when you get home and you can do the fun things you want to do.” Finley said. “I think the classes you choose are important to recognize that hey maybe if I take this many upper-level classes, it’s going to be really hard for me to do anything outside of school, and so just recognizing that it’s important for you to have both school and a life.”  

Senior student Ava Collins is one of the many students who have to deal with a difficult home and school life balance. Especially her workload outside of the classroom.

“Mostly I read, I write, I volunteer for the Humane Society, I am an alumni for the green leadership academy for the beavers ecosystem,” Collins said. “We do work in the Ozarks for ecosystems, ecological awareness and picking up the environment.”

With all of these activities outside of the classroom, there can be a feeling of not wanting to do school work so you push it off to the side.

“I place a lot of value on my school work, and I am very thankful that I have very understanding teachers,” Collins said “But there are times where I need to delegate tasks and a lot of times school work comes last in the list of importance.”

Upperclassmen tend to have more responsibility than underclassmen, therefore upperclassmen tend to have a harder time balancing their home and school life. 

“Absolutely, because I have a lot of responsibility, I have to get ready for collage, I have to look after my little brother, I have to find a job, I have to start thinking about these more adult, more grown up sort of things, when I am still going to school full time and taking these academically rigorous courses and challenging myself in school.”  

Not only does Collins struggle with balancing her school and home life, but so do other students.

“I think it’s very easy to get wrapped up in a lot of things outside of yourself, with the full 8 hour day school schedule and then again, most kids are working, most kids have extracurricular activities, church, stuff outside of school that gets them overwhelmed,” Collins said. “A lot of the times it stems from people pouring so much of themselves into all of those activities, that they leave nothing behind”

 With all of these activities, Collins said this about balancing her home life and school life.

“I do my best to remind myself that it’s OK to take breaks from it all,” Collins said. “Sometimes that means stepping out from one or the other, or sometimes that means stepping out of the picture entirely. I do take rest time very seriously, in between moments between transitioning activities and coming home from school and then going to practice or going to the humane society, it’s where I work on the things I need to get done, but also take some time to rest myself.”

What would be some advice for underclassmen about maintaining a good school and home life balance.

“Do not put too much strain on yourself, you are taking academically rigorous courses, you are in extracurricular activities , you are a part of this community and pouring too much of yourself away into trying to do it all is never beneficial,” Collins said. “Select a few of those activities that you really love, select a few of the hard classes that you really need to take, and then build yourself from there.”