Here at ISB, us students have to be perfect at everything. We have to get the best grades, play the best on the field, perform the best. The atmosphere at ISB seems to be getting more and more competitive, placing immense pressure on its students.

With college apps to complete, finals to take, IA’s to finish last minute, the average ISB student has a lot of academic work on their plate. But of course, most ISB students do more than just academics. Us students do some form of extracurricular activities, adding even more to our already packed plate.

All of this pressure and competition is just adding to the students stress. Just one quick scroll through Pantherline and you can see tons of questions about how to deal with stress and just pressure in general. One of the more recent Panterline posts details this phenomenon. It says “so many ISB students struggle to maintain mental health and are very prone to breaking down due to stress that is school-related…the society in ISB is very competitive academically.”

There seems to be this great internal pressure, that seems to be caused more by the students than anything else. We are our own worst enemies. We are naturally competitive with each other, which is not necessarily a good thing.

A senior said that, “I’ve seen more and more of myself and my friends succumbing to the intensely competitive atmosphere and environment of the school. Rarely do I get over 5 hours of sleep each night, and too often do I see my peers awake at 3am alongside me. It’s not uncommon for me now to get frantic messages or calls from friends suffering from panic attacks or extreme anxiety.

There is such an insurmountable amount of shame associated with doing poorly academically (and by poorly I mean scoring a B or below) and its effects on the student body in every grade are extremely apparent. With such an extreme fear of failure comes an attitude of generally being terrified of making decisions all the time, and an altogether unpreparedness for adulthood and independence.”

Unfortunately, there is not much we can do to deal with how competitive other people are. The only thing we can really do is control ourselves. If we want to start having a better time at school and enjoy learning, we have to stop comparing ourselves to others. It is in our best interest that we care about ourselves first.

Hanna W