Throughout my entire life, other people have been dictating what my priorities should be. My parents say my only priority is school. My teachers believe my only priority is their class. Friends think that socializing is the only thing I'm entitled to. By attempting to balance all of my assigned priorities, I have learned that my only priority is myself.

At the beginning of this academic year, I was attempting to give all aspects of my life the same amount of attention, disregarding what really mattered. All of my time was spent on school, even when I wasn't actively working on it. If I wasn't studying, I was worrying about the fact I was losing time that could I use to dedicate towards school. This led me to neglect my own well-being for the sake of decent grades.

After numerous nights of little to no sleep, I realized that I had abandoned most aspects of myself that I was truly proud of in sake of my required priorities. All of my actions were spent to appease others. My effort in school was to please my parents and teachers, my hanging out with friends was fueled by societal expectations that teenagers should have an adequate social life, and none of this was making me happy.

This realization flipped a switch in me, and I decided that my priority should be on me and to allow myself to be the person I wanted to be. Now I don’t feel obligated to go out with friends every time they ask, and my attention to school is to make sure I feel confident in my education, but not because of the pressure from parents and teachers. By learning this, I’ve been able to dedicate my time towards things I’ve had to put behind me like expanding my ever-growing library, putting extra effort into my writing and dedicating time to learn about the world around me.

Just because I am my own top priority doesn't mean I neglect my other responsibilities, I just make sure that I am confident and comfortable in myself and my actions, so my secondary priorities fall into place.