The new school year has just started, and already students are feeling the pressure of grades and homework weighing down on them. So soon life has already become a balancing act once more. We’re forced to choose between excelling at school or having a life.

Recently, a new trend has started in workplaces, feeding on burnout: quiet quitting. Despite the misleading name, this doesn’t actually involve quitting your job. At its core, the idea behind the trend is simple: don’t overwork yourself, put in minimal effort, keep your sanity.

This doesn’t just apply to jobs though. Students are experiencing this with their ever-increasing workload as well.

Classes are already getting stressful. Those notes that we took so diligently during the first week are slowly turning into a few highlights here and there. That resolution that we made–stay ahead of the homework–is already dead.

Students start the year so hopeful. They think they’ll be fine taking the hardest classes, after all, they’ve always done it. Maybe they can even throw in a few extracurriculars here and there. But eventually, the real world has to catch up to them. Those people that always excelled without even trying are learning a hard truth: things won’t always come easy.

They start staying up late, preparing for the next quiz, doing tomorrow’s homework, stressing about their lowering average. Eventually the late nights and stress catch up to them. They can’t function during the day; dark circles ring their eyes, and staying awake during class has become the most difficult assignment.

And so they give up.

No more late nights and worrying. More time for friends and fun. They’re barely getting by, doing the bare minimum, but they’re passing. They’re OK…happy even, if that’s possible. 

It’s maybe not the best solution. This choice will catch up to them when college applications and graduation come around. But for the time being, it’s the only solution that seems doable. After all, everyone keeps saying you shouldn’t worry about your grades so much; they won’t matter after you graduate.

It’s so easy to get burnt out. We put so much pressure on ourselves to succeed, be the best, make people proud. For some, grades are their validation. If they don’t have that A, then they have nothing. 

There’s a fine line between caring too much and not caring enough. As students, it’s our job to know our limits and when to take a break, take the pressure off. Some can choose quiet quitting as their solution; they can continue to do the bare minimum and think it’s OK, and maybe for them it is. But for others who have worked so hard and made it this far, now is not the time to give up.

Quiet Quitting is a solution, but it’s not the right one.