“I give up” is a phrase I hate. It means failure, and even though failure is a natural part of life – even a healthy thing – I still hate it when I fail. Ever since childhood, my parents have always held me to a high standard. When I inevitably failed, my parents didn’t even have to be disappointed in me; I was already disappointed in myself. This always led to overworking myself and eventually, burnout.

Burnout is our generation’s modern day plague. Everyone has experienced it at one point or another, from getting senioritis the second week of freshman year to putting off that mountain of homework you have for just one more day. From my experience, the best way to get out of that downward spiral is to just force yourself to start working. Put on some study music, and just persevere through that pile of homework, and after you have nothing left, and I mean nothing, then you can take a break. Trust me when I say that break is the sweetest thing you will ever experience.

Perseverance is an important skill I had to learn. Most people think that you just use it in academics, but you can use it in any aspect of your life. From sports to working through problems in relationships, perseverance is one of those things that suck in the moment but will lead to happiness later. 

Delayed gratification isn’t something that is on the minds of the average high schooler, but it should be. Since phones have messed up our attention span, it is even more important to learn to preserve through things we don’t want to do. We have to relearn how to read articles that are longer than a page, or listen in class for longer than two minutes without checking our phones for notifications. These things might seem small and meaningless right now. What’s the point of trying?

Sometimes, that’s what we need to do; we can’t always be doing the things we love because that’s not how the world works. We need to push ourselves. We are going to have to persevere through the things we hate doing, through the hard times in life and through that mountain of homework because eventually, that hard work will pay off. 

The next time you feel like giving up because you failed or got rejected, remember that persevering through it will get you through, and it will eventually get better. All meaningful things take time and effort.