“You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen.” The ABBA song lyric promises something effortless: a version of seventeen where everything still feels open, an age suspended between childhood and adulthood, filled with possibility and freedom. But somewhere between conversations, you begin to notice the quiet presence of an unspoken question: who are you becoming?
BCC High School junior Midori Golike explained, “I feel like there is a good amount of pressure to just like, have, you know, just have it decided so you can choose a good college for yourself.” For many like Golike, junior year becomes less about exploring interests and more about narrowing them down. Classes, extracurriculars, volunteering and even hobbies begin to feel like pieces of a larger resume rather than simple passions.
Beyond the everyday stress students describe, research suggests that academic pressure can have significant effects on adolescents’ mental health and behavior. A study analyzing data from over 2,400 teenagers in the China Family Panel Studies found that academic pressure had a significant positive relationship with adolescents’ behavioral problems with a total effect of 0.19, noting that excessive academic pressure can cause emotional changes and, over time, may contribute to mental health issues such as depression. Researchers further found that pressure can lower adolescents’ self-control and subjective well-being, factors that play important roles in emotional stability and behavior. This means that the pressure that students describe is not only a personal feeling, but rather, a measurable force that researchers say can shape teenagers’ emotional and behavioral development.
However, another perspective frames this pressure differently: it is a stepping stone rather than a setback. BCC High School junior Zahra Ebrahimi explained that surrounding yourself with people who are slightly ahead of you can actually encourage growth. “When you put yourself around people who are one step ahead of you, they help you go through that step,” she said. She believes that although comparison may lead to temporary feelings of discouragement, competition ultimately pushes you to become a better version of yourself. Reflecting on the stress that often comes with planning for the future, she added that “the pressure and the stress…make you stronger and lead you to success in life.” Ebrahimi’s perspective suggests the expectations of seventeen are not just burdens to carry, but challenges that can inspire growth.
It’s the night you turn seventeen. During your typical 8 p.m. Instagram scroll, you come across your school’s college decisions account. Yale, Harvard, Brown. You let out a quiet sigh as you glance over to the English test that was returned to you the day before, a gloomy “B” stamped at the top of the paper — almost as if it’s telling you that your future might already be doomed. It’s the birthday present you never knew you needed. Whether you choose to see this pressure as something that pulls you back or something that pushes you toward success, you will always have the agency to decide the narrative for yourself, one way or another. But the real question still remains: which will you choose?
Written by Aiko Matsuda
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons