Children are crying. Buildings are collapsing. Firefighters across the country have been dispatched, and the president has declared martial law over Plymouth County. In other words, the History/English Research Paper is due today. Staff writers Colleen Secaur and Caroline Stevenson hit the streets to get the exclusive student scoop…

Members of the junior class recalled the extreme stress they experienced during this past week, leading up to the highly anticipated February vacation. Looking back on his personal odyssey, junior Alex Knight said, “I was pretty stressed. It was very late and I didn’t feel like I was gonna finish it.”

Fellow junior Maddy Porter reiterated this sentiment, stating, “I cried so many times about it because I didn’t feel prepared.” Porter reflected on her conflicting priorities throughout the process: “I was trying to edit other people’s papers and my own paper, and I kept second guessing myself.” Junior Sarah Lincoln said, “I spent probably 10 hours or more on the paper. I got very little sleep these past few nights.”

With shared feelings of overwhelming stress and exhaustion, many juniors are asking what can be done to make sure this doesn’t happen next year. Alex Knight has a few ideas: He said teachers “should maybe take more time to meet with kids individually, I guess.”  Junior Grace Coyne added, “Although the research was the biggest part of the paper, I feel we should have spent more time writing it out and focus less on researching for a week or so.” Coyne is thankful the project is over, and she said February vacation is a rewarding gift after the strenuous week the junior class endured.

To all the juniors who are relieved of the stress of this year’s research paper, godspeed to you on this very special day. Let’s all join in a moment of silent support for those students who didn’t hit “Turn In” at the end of the day.