HOME
Projects
Archive of Young Researchers' Papers

Living With Stress


K.Y.(Female), a high school junior (11th grade) in Kyoto, Japan

Stress - - - - - This is a very hard word to explain. I didn't use this word so often when I was young, but I do use this word a lot now. I didn't even know what it meant when I was young. I do not know why, but this word "stress" is very common in my life. I mean both the word and the stress itself.
The first time I thought I was filled with a lot of stress is when I was in England. I was fed up with everything and felt very lonely when I was in school. Everything just continued every day, and I had no change in my life. This is the time people start to get stressed. If there is no change and nothing happens, they start to get bored and want to change their life. Of course, no one can change their own life even if they want to.
The one big reason that makes my school life interesting is my friends. If I had no friends, I'd be bored and would not want to come to school everyday. But sometimes the stress is made by my friends. Because there are so many human relations in life, it is very hard to control everything. You might get stressed when you've said something not nice to your friends, or you might get stressed when you think about how the other people think about you. If you have started to worry, you never get away from the stress.
If I have started to worry about something, I can't enjoy my life. I can't concentrate on lessons in school, and I can't get along as well as usual with my friends. If I can't enjoy school, I get stressed more and more. This is a vicious circle. Nobody is able to get out of this. You can tell the people who are in it. They must be looking unhappy, tired and dull.
To get out of this vicious circle, you must get rid of your stress. To get rid of your stress, you must relax. If I want to get rid of my stress, I'll do something that I like and enjoy, such as reading books and listening to music. Also, you can talk to someone who understands you well. Anything that you think you can relax to will help to get rid of the stress.
There is nobody who can't live without getting stressed. Even though there are so many different types of people in the world, everyone gets stressed sometime in their lives. So you have to think how to cope with them. Showing your feelings like crying and shouting out are very good way as well. To think in a positive way, you will understand yourself more when you get stressed. Also, you will grow a lot in some ways. So it may be good for you. How often do you get stressed?

Copyright (c) 1998, Child Research Net, All rights reserved.