As the stress of ACT’s and SAT’s come strolling around during the summer of Sophomore and Junior year, many students take initiative and begin to prepare early. However, students may find that with ACT and SAT prep, plus the summer programs and school, there is simply no time to spend with friends, and equally as important, themselves.

Teens stay in ACT/SAT classes for 3 hours at a time and return home to do summer homework. During the few precious weeks that they have left over are quickly filled up with summer programs and volunteering opportunities. Many teens from A.M. have complained at the lack of free time in their summer schedules. Sungjoon Chang from Media club has said “I just don’t think I’ll have time to hang out with friends and do things for myself”. Although, students have found ways around this.

Students coordinate and try to attend the same summer camps as their friends in the hopes that their experience will be more fun and positive. With social media growing and texting and facetiming becoming simpler and more convenient, students have also been able to talk to their friends from across the country.

Teenagers are becoming more sophisticated and parents struggle to follow, as they grew up in a different generation with different norms and values.

While all these effective ways to stay in touch are fantastic, these students are not able to take care of their bodies.

Researchers found that over that period, “the prevalence of obesity increased from 8.9 percent to 11.5 percent, and the prevalence of overweight increased from 23.3 percent to 28.7 percent.” NPR made a report on how teenagers are starting to gain weight over the summer rather than losing it. Teens’ BMIs are going through the charts. Moreno from NPR stated that his “hypothesis is that without the structure of school, kids are going to bed at irregular times and parents are more relaxed about enforcing bedtimes.

As a result, children’s sleep and circadian rhythms are disrupted”. Although this is a contributing factor, many others believe that it is the vigorous competition from school to get into college.

Parents grew up in a time where summer time was a time of running around the backyard, cannonballing into pools and going to the beach with friends, but as competition grows stronger, students are forced to use their valuable summers to give themselves the best possible chance of getting into college.

There are many effective ways for a teenager to deal with weight gain.

The most efficient way to lose weight is to, set small goals, make a timeline for when you will accomplish your goal, be consistent, challenge yourself, and have some kind of motivation. Before you know it, your summer body will be complete.

<Joshua Kim / St. Margaret’s Episcopal School / 10th Gra>