It’s safe to assume that MVHS is a pretty competitive school, in which students are constantly pushed to their academic limits and develop the potential to do great things later in life. However, with this comes an enormous amount of pressure that parents and faculty simply can’t fathom. It takes being a student to truly understand what an average MVHS student goes through in just one day of school.

It’s true, at a certain point it can get irritating when students are constantly complaining about the workload and the pressure. It seems like we spend all this time resisting what we go through in school, when in reality, doing this will get us nowhere. We’re told by parents, faculty and sometimes even peers to just suck it up; if everyone else can do it, so can you.

What many of us fail to realize, however, is that venting our frustrations can actually help us understand what more we want from our schools. By bottling up the pressure we feel, all we do is contribute to the intimidating dynamic of the school, which is the very foundation of the issue.

Sure, complaining about school won’t make us smarter. But being able to express your opinions and having classmates do the same shows students that they aren’t suffering alone in the tedious journey that is high school. With this in mind, they naturally have a boosted morale with which they can tackle the obstacles they face.

Despite contrary belief, personally, I’d feel much more motivated knowing others are struggling, as thinking everyone is succeeding would just give me a sense of defeat.

And it is also true that we should appreciate what we have and be thankful to be students in such a highly ranked school that is going to help us go where we need to in life. However, by merely accepting what we have rather than questioning it when need be, schools won’t ever improve.

Sure, it is unlikely that a bunch of students complaining amongst each other about a certain class or workload isn’t going to help anything. However, it’s these complaints we have that get translated into end-of-the-year school-provided surveys that are used as guides for future improvement. Without the chance to express discontent throughout the year to our peers, many students wouldn’t feel passionate at all about change, which we usually reflect in said surveys. Not to mention, lamenting to our peers can actually make others aware of issues they may never have been if we had all been expected to enjoy everything the school has to offer with a smile on our faces.

Finally, and quite simply, each and every one of us is entitled to the right of free speech. As long as it is not harmful to the wellbeing of others, students are well within their rights to complain about school. There should be no reason they shouldn’t be allowed or encouraged to voice their concerns or opinions, no matter how ungrateful or far fetched they may seem.

Ultimately, it’s our feedback and criticism that is going to make a change. Only students have borne the brunt of these schools and should voice their thoughts for everyone’s well being. So long as it is done respectfully, we have no right to complain about the complaining.