Every day, multiple students attend a seven-hour school day, with practice and/or work after school, and then come home late and start homework. How do these students balance work, activities, homework, sports, and a social life?

Carolyn Wilson, junior, goes through this every day.

Everyone says that junior year is the hardest, and Wilson took it to the next level. Even with the five AP classes she’s taking, along with cross country, swim team and the 14 clubs/activities she’s in, she wants to get more involved. “I enjoy the activities that I’m in,” Wilson said. She also joined clubs like; BRAVE, I Choose to Live, Pacer Puppets, United Sound, Falcon Mentors, and Writing Center; because she loves helping people.

That’s just school involvement. Outside of school, she works at Red Robin on the weekend, is involved with her church’s youth group, and the science fair.

Staying organized, surprisingly, is easy for Wilson. “I think organization is very important,” says Wilson, “I would go crazy if I wasn’t organized.” She writes everything down in her planner and has a different binder for every class.

Wilson likes to challenge herself because she wants good preparation for college. “I especially try to challenge myself in science and math because I want to be a forensic scientist,” said Wilson. When she gets free time she usually spends it with her friends and family.

Another victim of commitment and busyness is Jordan Deleon, senior.

Like Wilson, Deleon is involved in AP classes; four AP classes to be exact. He is also in the chamber choir and advanced repertory theatre class.

Outside of school, he dances 25 hours a week, rehearses for musicals, takes voice lessons, and meets with a college advisor. “I have to keep myself busy or else I get bored,” said Deleon, “Why waste time doing nothing when you could be doing what you love?”

This year has been extremely stressful for Deleon because he’s auditioning for 12 colleges. He handles the stress by taking everything one step at a time. “If I worry about something that isn’t affecting me at the moment, then I cause myself the pain of having to stress about it twice,” said Deleon.

Along with that, he has started to meditate in the mornings to start off his day relaxed. “I am enthusiastically loyal to my GoogleCalendar schedule,” says Deleon, “and I anticipate activities so that I’m prepared.”

Being involved has compelled him to become more strong-willed. “I have learned to never give up, even in the darkest hours—like literally in the darkness hours when I’m doing homework at 1 a.m.,” said Deleon.

Figuring out how to balance school, homework, sports, activities, work and a social life, at the time, might seem hard and unrewarding. However, in the end it leads to great achievements and no regrets.