Nov 29th – Dec 23rd is that special time of year, the Holidays are officially here and students are officially starting to get burnt out, which is defined as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when one feels overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. Some people may be feeling all of these symptoms, some people may only be feeling a few, and some people may be feeling none at all. With student stress seemingly becoming one of the most pressing issues it is important to many that they can nip this issue in the bud. 

One of the most popular ideas to come out of students over the past two years has been an installment of “Mental Health Days”. The concept of a mental health day involves just taking a day off for yourself to completely unwind and relax. Via the New York Times “In the last two years alone, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut,  Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Virginia have passed bills permitting children to be absent from school for mental or behavioral health reasons.” The respect to these Mental Health Days being oberved at the state level already just shows how far students’ voices are able to take them, as well as showing that these mental health days aren’t just a gimmick, but a legitimate request.

Many students gripe with this because they feel they cannot miss too many days of school as they will fall too far behind. Senior Emma Metevier says “many students worry about the workload that they will be piled with when they come back to school causing more stress as well as them not taking time off of school to focus on their mental health.”

The newfound adamancy to promote and strengthen mental health is a good thing. People like Prince Harry have come out recently advocating for it, as Prince Harry states “many people around the world have been stuck in jobs that didn’t bring them joy, and now they’re putting their mental health and happiness first.” 

However many people can call out these issues as Harry left the royal family due to a “lack of support and lack of understanding,” many students can agree that mental health is important however people have came out in opposition of Harry saying how he can’t just leave a job as the Prince just because he was feeling stressed out, as well as promoting that “quitting is good for your mental health.” 

Athletes from Calvin Ridley to Simone Biles take time off of their sport to promote their mental health and these decisions came out to mixed results, the fight over one’s mental health is as large as it has ever been, and it’s almost guaranteed to get larger. As Ridley stated “Recovery is not one and done. It’s a lifelong journey that takes one place at a time, one step at a time.”