After living most of my life in the city, sounds of sirens and car horns are just background noise, and the smell of gasoline simply means I’m home. Now, living here at OVS I’ve learned an entirely new way of life, for I have a better chance of seeing a grizzly bear than a bus.
At home, I wake up to the sounds of garbage trucks and school busses, and I fall asleep to the screech of distant sirens and car alarms. And quite honestly, it’s comforting.
Photo Credit: autoparkchryslerjeepblog.com
Now I wake up to birds chirping outside my window, and fall asleep to coyotes howling just a little ways away. And although that sounds beautiful, like some poem or romantic story, those birds are loud! And obnoxious. And constantly make a racket!
Photo Credit: community.secondlife.com
As for the coyotes – who knows what they’re barking about! As far as I know, they could’ve just killed their prey and are celebrating before they enjoy their feast. I’ll take a multiple-ton, killing machine on wheels any day.
I know that both the city and the wilderness come with their fair share of dangers, not one more dangerous than the other. I also know that OVS isn’t actually the wilderness, but compared to the city it sure seems like it! Personally, I prefer living in the city, but life at OVS has opened my eyes to what else is out there.
Don’t get me wrong – education is supposed to be challenging. But more frequently I’ve heard people say “Is he okay?” Following comes the response, “Yeah but he’s all burnt out.”
Burnout is real. It’s a state of chronic stress that can cause lethargy, depression, and general numbness and not a care in the world. (I suggest you read the link given below.)
“Burnout happens when you’ve been experiencing chronic stress for so long that your body and your emotional system have begun to shut down and are operating in survival mode,” says Dr. Sara Denning, a clinical psychologist based in Manhattan who specializes in dealing with stress and anxiety. “You numb out because you can’t think. You can’t even make decisions anymore.”
Further delving into the article reveals that burnout symptoms were arriving in younger and younger people, as early as college freshman. Which is where I will be next year. And it’s also where I feel like I’m heading next year.
There’s something called Senioritis, and it’s, as described as me, “a high school senior lacking in motivation because WE’RE GRADUATING OMYGOSH.” The symptoms are similar to a burnout, lacking motivation, lethargy, etc. The difference is that Senioritis isn’t usually stress or depression caused. It’s just that knowing how I won’t be here next year to deal with consequences makes me want to… Slack off.
I’ve gotten off topic.
Burnout.
If a college freshman is already feeling the symptoms of burnout, then what does that say about the education system? Are we supposedto be holding these children over a fire with a stick? Maybe. But are we then supposed to let them slow roast until a perfect, golden brown –
– or let them catch on fire and watch them try and quench themselves?
Graphic image aside… There goes my two cents. And I don’t care enough to get them back either.
When I was in first grade, I went to school in Hangzhou International School. The classes ranged from preschool to twelfth grade, totaling to about 312 students. At least, that’s the only number I remember.
HIS is a small private school with students from Japan, Korea, Germany, Australia, you name it. It was a day school, ending at 3, and uniforms were required. Nobody got dress-coded, and each class became very, very tight.
One of my most vivid memories is walking down a long, white hallway decorated with life-sized paintings of dinosaurs. It was an empty hallway with big windows and no doors, so we could be as loud as we wanted. And with 25+ students in my grade, we were definitely loud. We travelled from class to class as a pack, because in lower and middle school, that’s how classes worked.
Photo cred: Byrne Robotics
I was at HIS for 8 years. Leaving China to go to Ojai Valley School was probably the biggest change in my life.
There’s only 114 students at OVS. At least, that’s the only number I remember. We have a dress code and students that ran around campus in all different directions to different classes.
It’s wide, crazy, open, and very, very, very small. You’re basically forced to get to know the people here because we’re kinda-sorta stuck on top of a hill together.
The two college dorms I applied to, Skarland and Moore, with 100 and 322 students living in them. Which are the sizes of the only schools I have ever been to. I guess you can consider me a small-town girl.
It was a small world for me. This school, with about 9,000 students, is going to be an entirely new galaxy for me.
People wonder why teenagers get sick so often, and I think I have found the answer.
We are constantly being run into the ground, overwhelmed with task after task.
I will use myself as an example. I go to school, do my homework, and go to volleyball. Everyday. No breaks in between.
You would think I would get used to it, and I do in some ways. But sometimes the lack of a break catches up to me.
Getting home at 10pm in need of a shower and a snack does not let the teen body get the rest that it needs to stay healthy.
At our age we are growing so much mentally and physically.
If we take the breaks that we need, we are scolded for being lazy or not trying hard enough – but if we do too much we are told that we need to “slow down”.
Confusing, right?
So much is asked of the high school or college student, and yet whenever I say that I can almost always hear an adult scoffing and making some snide remark about how “we have it so easy”.
And perhaps in a lot of ways we do.
I know that I don’t have to worry about paying the bills at the end of every month – and I am so grateful for that.
But I do have to worry about my grades, sports, getting into colleges, trying to maintain some kind of social life, and a lot of other factors that are major stressors.
So why is anyone surprised when 1/3 of the junior class gets a cold, or a fever?
Some of us get only three to five hours of sleep per night because of the work load that is put on us.
Everyone needs a break now and then, and when that break isn’t taken, the human body will find a way to take it.
Our systems are beaten to the ground. And while we may not have to same feats to overcome as some, we have our own.
Does the coming of a break bring the mindset of exhaustion, or does exhaustion signal the need for a break?
Two weeks before break, I feel my body shutting down and the traditional sick feeling beginning in the lower ridges of my throat. An ache in my head begins and my body feels heavier each morning, as if stones line my blankets.
Do schools, through years and years of grueling torture and experimentation, know the limits of the teenage body and place school breaks appropriately? Or, do our bodies and minds know that a break is coming and anticipate it by prepping us for hibernation?
The strong hold it out until break and return rested and energized. The weak hold it out until break then proceed to get sick for 10 days. And return not so rested but strong enough for the next break.
My questions are; which of the theories is correct? Is this the right way to hold school? Is there even a right way?
Parts of the following blog are fictional accounts.
Tuesday
I’m always the first one back from breakfast, so the dorms are quiet and still. Halfway down the hallway, a drawing of a cartoon spider flutters to my feet from it’s position on the wall. It was an omen, I swear it was. There was a spider in the dorm’s cutlery drawer when I was looking for spoon to make hot chocolate with.
The girls went to bed that night feeling weary but quite hopeless. We all knew that the relentless torture would not ease up yet. “Third time’s the charm,” they say.
3am and the all-too familiar sound fills the dorm. I laid awake in bed for 20 seconds or so, contemplating just staying in my room and facing the consequences.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with that thought, as I was the first person out of the dorm. The other humans took their time coming out because they knew that there was no fire and no danger.
We’re all tired. We’re all bickering.
Wednesday
No sign of our 8-legged friends anywhere, so I felt internally relieved. The other girls felt hopelessly exhausted and didn’t have as much knowledge as I do.
All was quiet that night. Not a peep, not a ring, not a twitch.
Thursday
6:40am and I’m brushing my teeth, eyes still closed and dozing off in the silence. A friend screams and points to the wall – a large brown recluse, crouching and staring at me from the mirror. I bring him outside and try to calm my beating heart, now definitely awake.
There’s the cartoon spider at my feet again. I had stuck it back onto the wall on Tuesday, and today… Well, there it is.
9pm Thursday. I’m prepared for their final attack.
Friday
5am and I was woken by the smell of smoke. It was faint enough that the fire alarms didn’t go off.
There were about (aw heck no) a dozen spiders on my floor.
They all ran under the crack of my door and I followed them out into the hallway and out of the dorm. It was hot outside. Like, fiery hot. Actually, there was a huuuge fire outside the dorm that singed the edges of my tie-dye shirt and curled the ends of my braided hair.
The fire alarm finally went off but the dorm didn’t jump like it usually did.
Everyone was sick of the fire alarm. Every single one of them stayed in their beds and covered their ears and groaned. Nobody was awake enough to smell the smoke or to even bother to check the hallways, where smoke was coating the ceilings.
The dorm dogs ran outside silently, followed by a cat and several hundred more insects of all shapes and sizes.
I thought I was dreaming, which is why I only laughed and waved at the dorm.
As the day goes on, exhaustion starts to grow. Not that I’ve done anything besides sit around all day, but nonetheless, I feel exhausted.
It all happens unconsciously. I sit down next to two friends and then immediately memorize who’s sitting in the room with us. One, two, three, four, and then five adults. The boys take over the couches, and the girls weave around the snack tables.
The big game is showing on the TV, and I repeatedly flicker my eyes to the screen, keeping track of the score and any big plays that might have happened. There are also people outside playing ping-pong, and I try to mentally mark the people who are outside.
And while I’m so absorbed in the room, I’m also talking to the person to my left. The one that is so demanding of my attention, and I’m thinking about my inability to give it to him.
Photo cred; healthyplace.com
Because my mind and my senses are completely split, there is no way in bloody heck that I can ever pay attention to one thing and one thing only. My ears strain to hear the conversations on the couches and my eyes try to watch and make sure everyone is alright and okay. God knows why my mind just can’t settle down.
So now it’s the end of the day, but I don’t feel like I’m allowed to say “I’m exhausted” because I have literally done nothing but sit around all day.
The “epidemic” of our generation. Researchers or something have come up with the term “text neck,” which is a sort of condition you can get from texting. Symptoms include bad posture, neck and/or back pains, and can lead to spine degeneration and surgery.
Ooh technology, you’ve got us now!
Or do you?
See, I get “reader’s neck.” And “writer’s neck.” And “artist’s neck.” Oh, and “carving into tracing paper with a small, sharp knife neck.”
Oh look, no modern tech in this picture. That looks sooo comfortable, doesn’t it? I bet nobody lectures him about “scribe’s neck.”
I’m not saying that text neck doesn’t exist. I’m saying that maybe some things matter more than text neck.
How about the constantly hurting spine of the tall senior in a minuscule desk? Seriously, he looks like a titan in the desk.
Or perhaps the fact that there is almost literally no way to read a book comfortably on your bed. When I get into the story, I stop moving for hours. And then I “wake up” feeling like a ton of bricks had been stacked onto my neck.
How about I broaden this topic and say that probably everything we do is harming our body in some odd way? Yeah, let’s do that.
After attending Catholic preparatory school for the past two and a half years with a number of my closest friends, I never imagined I would have transferred to a quite liberal, low-key school with such a relaxed environment.
Because of the many negative experiences I had at such a strict and old-fashioned school, I decided that it was necessary to make a change in my academic life.
One of my best friends and her older brother advocated highly for the school they went to; Ojai Valley School. Sounds like some tiny, boring school in the middle of nowhere.
Boy was I wrong.
Photo Credit: thelavenderinn.files.wordpress.com
The second I arrived on campus for an interview with admissions, I was taken aback by the breathless view from the top of campus.
Not only can you see a majority of the Ojai Valley, but as I looked around I noticed the extent of beauty around and on campus. Horses grazing among the green, lush hills, the large and obviously eco-friendly solar panels that consume the top of a hillside, and the relaxed social environment.
This is my fourth year at Ojai Valley School, and I’ve taken an art class every year here. My freshman year I took Photography, and my sophomore and junior years I took Ceramics and Ceramics II. My senior year, this year, I recall signing up for a drawing class.
Never would I imagine that I would be put into AP Studio Art.
Yes, I may have had three years of art, but none of those three art classes involved hand-drawing anything. Now, in AP Art, we have to produce 24 art pieces to be put into our portfolio, which is a staple if you want to get into art school.
Which is not where I want to go. But I took it as a challenge and went with it anyways.
12 of the pieces are our Concentration, which is “a body of related works that demonstrate sustained and thoughtful investigation of a specific visual idea.” Basically 12 pieces of art related to one topic, such as drawing a 12-piece short comic.
12 of the pieces are our Breadth, “a variety of works demonstrating a range of conceptual and/or technical approaches.”
There’s more than just drawing with pencil and paper. There’s black charcoal, white charcoal, oil painting, oil pastels, color pencils, watercolor painting, things like that, and our Breadth section is basically us showing off what we can do in as many different ways as we can. (My favorite so far is white charcoal on black paper.)
Apart from “art” classes in elementary school, I’ve never taken art before, so since the beginning of the year, every time I sat down in our art studio, my first thought was always “I have no idea what I am doing.” To be honest, I still don’t know what I’m doing.
But that’s alright, I guess. Most of us don’t know what we’re doing there anyways.
OVS Journalism Blog 
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