Both adults and high school students around the world feel stress, but finding ways to manage it sometimes may seem nearly impossible. Junior Samiksha Ramesh takes six AP courses, a feat nearly impossible, is a leader in speech and debate, attends academic league and competes in traditional Indian dance. Even though it may seem to be “too much for teenager to handle,” Ramesh takes her tasks calmly and accomplishes the goals she set for herself.

“This year I took six AP courses because I wanted to kind of challenge myself,” Ramesh said. “I don’t really know what I want to major in college, so I thought the best way to decide would be to take all the classes I could at the college level and see which one I liked best.”

While some students would find all AP courses to be brutal or overwhelming, Ramesh finds a brighter outlook on school.

“She doesn’t take APs for just an image,” senior Luiza Coelho said. “She dedicates herself to truly learning the material because she values her education. This summer, it is likely she’ll do serious research.”

Ramesh stays extremely busy during the school day but also participates in multiple extra curricular activities hours after school ends.

“I have speech and debate for an hour or more right after school, and then I go home and do all my homework,” Ramesh said. “Then after that I go to any other practices for academic league or model united nations but still manage to get to sleep by around 10 p.m.”

Ramesh does get stressed, but she champions it because of her undeniable dedication to thrive in other aspects of life.

“Samiksha takes part in traditional Indian dance and maintains strong connections with her culture,” Coelho said.

Just like anything else, there are obstacles that come with being so involved in many different activities besides school.

“I think the hardest thing is resisting the urge to procrastinate because if you lose one day then you become caught making up a whole bunch of different stuff,” Ramesh said.

Through Ramesh’s experiences concerning stress, the lessons she learned will prove to bring her success in college.

“You shouldn’t be intimidated by how hard you think something is, you should definitely just give it your all,” Ramesh said. “You will regret what you don’t do in high school because this is where we begin to build the future for ourselves.”