When assignments pile up, projects are due, and essays are unfinished, many students feel overwhelmed, which can lead to procrastination. That’s not an issue for seniors Airi Choy and YiJia Wang, however. Through hard work, a burning drive, and a passion for academics, these two can tackle nearly anything that school throws at them.
Choy explains that her key to balancing school life and personal life is setting “time frames” for herself, so she can dedicate a specific chunk of time to specific activities. This helps her by creating a system of organization while allowing her to take breaks and move on to other things throughout her day.
“For me, I am able to focus the best at night, so I set a time frame of 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM for purely studying,” Choy says. “At school, I tend not to focus, so I spend most of my time with friends during and after school. For extracurriculars, I try to practice my violin every day and also set a time frame for that.”
Similarly, Wang shares that her method of keeping track of things is to create schedules for all her different activities. Additionally, with her internship on top of her after-school activities, she gives herself days in between to go home and relax.
“I would create just a calendar and have set days to be days where I have my internships and after-school activities,” Wang says. “Then maybe every other day, I’ll have an off day where I can just go home and study or just relax in general.”
To avoid burnout while studying, Choy gives herself breaks once she starts to feel stressed. She says that working in a “state of crisis” due to stress can harm students’ mental health and overall efficiency in schoolwork.
“Usually, when I’m stressed out, I just stop studying,” Choy says. “I advise just giving yourself a break, because you are not an academic machine to study every day nonstop. It also helps your brain refresh and work better when you get back to it.”
Wang says her key to reducing stress is to avoid overworking and to use her free time to do things she enjoys. This helps her return to her work with a relaxed, yet focused mindset.
“It is important to give yourself a time frame to relax, even if it’s just for 5 minutes or even up to a day, because once you get back at it, you’ll be even more motivated to do things,” Wang says. “My tip for stress is that you should find a hobby that you like. It’s truly the motivator that allows you to push and pursue things that you’re too tired to do. It just helps you rejuvenate yourself when things get hard.”
Choy claims that academic achievements can have both positives and negatives; on one hand, they can give students a sense of accomplishment and pride for their hard work. On the other, it can become an addiction, leading students to hunger for more while downplaying their hard work.
“It really depends on the type of person, but it allows you to think that you are capable and pushes you to work harder and improve,” Choy says. “However, although it could help you grow, it could sometimes bring you down. For me, I kept wanting to get that same feeling of accomplishment that I obsessed over wanting to become the best in everything.”
Wang reassures that not every student has to love school to perform well and apply what they have learned. She says that everyone works differently and that some methods are better for certain students than others.
“Perhaps some people do like getting stimulated by the stress from school and having to work towards a certain goal, but maybe some people wouldn’t like it, and that’s totally fine,” Wang says. “There’s different ways people deal with that stress and different ways people maneuver through these adversities and hardships.”
Not every success story has only a single character; teachers are great resources to help students achieve their goals and perform well in school — It’s their job, after all.
“I think a lot of teachers at Kalani are very supportive and when I ask them questions, they’re always there to give me the answer that really helps me succeed,” Wang says. “Mr. [Matsueda], my AP chemistry teacher, definitely helped me get that five on the exam and Mr. Kimura from HOSA gives me good advice when I have questions.”
Mentors provide a clearer understanding and boost confidence in themselves. Rather than doing the work for them, a good mentor guides the student to figure things out on their own.
“Teachers like Mr. Kimura and Mr. Okawa really helped; since they’re both so blunt and honest, it kind of breaks your shell,” Choy says. “For me, they helped me see my capability in things and that I can do anything if I really want to do it. They gave me confidence in what I think and how I think. Especially for me, I was super quiet and conservative in how I thought, but they kind of broke that barrier of my overthinking that covered my actual thoughts, if that makes sense.”
Viewing her success, Choy states that anyone can be successful if they overcome their fear of failure.
“I see a lot of my peers say ‘It’s too much work,’ or ‘This is way too hard for me, only smart people can do this,’ which I think is not true at all,” Choy says. “Of course, this is harder than it sounds, but if people could get over that fear and self-consciousness of not being able to do things or think it’s too much work for them, they can be successful in their own way. Anyone who tries is smart and everyone can be smart in their own way if they just give it a chance.”
