The second full week of school has begun, and students finally got their schedules set Jan. 9. This causes stress for not only the students, but the faculty as well, which is completely unnecessary.

Understandably, students are frustrated because they have been waiting for days to get into the counselor’s office to change their schedule, and understandably, teachers are frustrated because students are joining their class behind the rest of the students.

Moving into a class almost five days behind the rest of their peers can lead to issues with some students, and lead those already in the class to become frustrated from catching new students up to speed.

Throughout my four years of high school, second semester schedule changes have seemed to be a reoccurring problem for my peers and myself. This has left me wondering why there is not a better system in place to accomplish this done faster.

According to counselor Jennie Lary, this year, students could change their schedules as early as Dec. 10, and the last day was Jan. 9.

To me, this date seems reasonable in getting schedules sorted out, but leaves me with another question. If students are able to change their schedules so early on, why are not those days being fully utilized?

In the first few weeks of the semester, all I hear in the hallways are the frantic worries of students wondering if they will get into the class they want. After learning how early they could have gotten their scheduled changed, I can not help but feel that the reason everyone is stressed is due to the lack of responsibility from the students themselves.

As a school, if we could manage our time better and see the counselors earlier about our schedules, the stress levels of the entire school would go down. This way, classes are set before a week after winter break. This would allow classmates to begin the semester together.