For the past couple of days, my brain has been clogged.

I don’t know whether it was the homework coming in faster than I could write it down, the girl problems that had my mind spinning in endless circles, or the nosedive my sleeping habits had been in, but at some point my brain had decided to shut off without consulting me.

I’d sit in class, hearing my teachers lecture, but registering nothing.  Every night I’d stare at a white computer screen for half an hour before I could even gather the ideas to get started on my assignments.

Then today, in my fifth period class, we were given the period to work on whatever we needed, and I found myself yet again staring at another blank screen, unable to articulate my thoughts.  At that moment, I decided I had had enough, and asked my teacher if I could work outside.

I went outside, laid out on the grass, and spent the next 40 minutes thinking about nothing, and just listening to the murmurs of Redwood.  I came back into the room at the end of the period feeling refreshed, and for the rest of the day I felt sharper than I had in weeks.

Unfortunately, I’m not the only student so overwhelmed by his or her double-booked schedule that they are unable to focus on one task at a time.  Many other students sit through class with a blank stare on their face, attempting to listen but unable to take in the material because they are already long past capacity.

Many high school students, when faced with this problem, accept that it’s part of the Redwood experience and spend exorbitant amounts of time on their homework every evening.  Others may resort to other more questionable methods such as cheating or plagiarism.

The rationale behind these measures is often that they don’t have time to take a break with the work endlessly flowing and the pressure ever-growing.  Seemingly, the only option is to toughen up and suffer through it.

In my state of tranquility out on the South Lawn, I had an epiphany.  Sometimes, in the face of adversity, whether it be a difficult problem in math class, a mental block, or anything else that may come ones way, action is not always the best way forward.  In order to move forward, I first had to take a step back, and pause for a moment.  In an age where everyone seems to be constantly moving, people forget to stop for a second and take a breath, suffocating in a mound of overdue papers and responsibilities.