High school students each day spend roughly six hours in a classroom just to come home and work until 3 a.m. on the piles of homework assigned for each class. 

The amount of stress that comes with homework can be extremely overwhelming. Sometimes, it can be so overwhelming it causes breakdowns because students just can’t seem to get their conclusion sentence or a graph just right. 

Personally, I partake in art to calm me down if I have had a stressful day. Though it may not be calming for everyone, picking up a paintbrush or some colored pencils is just the right kind of therapy for me. 

People mistake art all the time. Art is not just pencil and paper or paint brush and canvas, it can come in all different forms such as photography, music, architecture, dance, theater and even writing. There is something to fill anyone’s taste!

Art is everywhere. Art is in the clothes we wear, the murals we see on the streets, the illustrations we see in books and even in the music we listen to. I feel art in a high school setting doesn’t get enough attention. 

In high school, students commonly see major recognition for things such as sports and academics. But, not every student’s strong point is in sports or academics. Within having hundreds of high school students, not everyone is going to have their strong point set there–and that’s okay! There are plenty of jobs that revolve around a person’s artistic abilities such as art therapy. 

A survey done by the Huffington post found “45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body, regardless of artistic experience or talent.”

I personally encourage everyone, no matter if they are the next Pablo Pacasso or can draw about as well as a kindergartner, to pick up a camera, a pencil and paper or even just turn on some music the next time they are feeling overwhelmed.