The vast majority of Dimond High School students take six classes per semester, which in turn means homework for about six classes per night.

If you play a varsity sport, you’ll get home at 7 p.m. at the earliest. If you participate in the musical or fine arts classes, your mornings seem to be taken over.

If you participate in Model UN, DDF or any other school-sanctioned activities, you’ll miss days of school to travel, compete and practice.

Most students find themselves short on time and short on energy, trying to balance the things they love with family obligations and school requirements.

In no way is participating in these extracurriculars a bad idea. The combination of challenging classes and enriching activities is the key to passionate and well-rounded students.

Dimond High School is full of passionate and well-rounded students. Many of them balance eight things at once while juggling another three activities.

Sports at Dimond High School are taken very seriously. This year alone, Dimond has taken home eight state championships.

The Fine Arts and DDF are also taken very seriously. It often seems like there’s nothing Dimond students don’t excel at.

Without sports games, musicals, robotic competitions, the list goes on and on our school’s campus would lack the certain kind of chaos that makes Dimond so wonderful.

Many students have normalized the constant stress and unhappiness that comes from academic pressure. But there’s no point or glory in needlessly struggling.

The balance of extracurriculars and academics is a difficult scale and for that reason I asked my fellow students how they take advantage of their freetime to combat stress.

“Organization and responsibility. The student who plans ahead and notices a conflict and takes action to prevent it gets further than the student who passively allows the conflict to overwhelm him or her? Being organized and prepared for anything is really the only advice I have, to be honest,” said Dimond Senior Carter Moore.

Some students aren’t as dedicated as Moore, however. Sitting down and being organized and disciplined takes a certain type of student. Which is why it’s important to know when you need to take a break when —you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.

“My advice to good time management is that every free period you have, take advantage of it and do as much work as you can. The free time you don’t use could result in an extra hour of homework.”

“By doing work at school, you have access to friends, teachers and the library to help you out when you might not at home,” said Dimond Senior Nikira Lane.

“Dimond is a wonderful academic environment. It’s challenging, and sometimes the risk doesn’t feel worth the reward, but it also allows you to pick your own path. The comfort of knowing Dimond has some of the best educators in the country, who all genuinely care about their students future is one of the biggest stress relievers,” Lane said.

Our students have diverse interests and want to pursue them all, from engineering to languages, and an incredible art program. When time management conflicts arise, don’t be afraid to confront them.

If you find yourself staying up too late, take the workload off during school. The library is open to students, and many teachers keep their doors open before and after school.

There’s no such thing as a stress-free environment. It’s important to lift up our peers while we try to manage all the wonderful things we’re doing for our school and ourselves.