📚 From Academic Burnout to Belonging: A Student’s Journey at TSS

By: Connor Jones | Current TSS High School Student

From the outside, TSS is very hidden and unassuming. Driving through Rosslyn, you’d never notice its existence. I never knew how much it would help me.

I came to TSS at the beginning of this year. I was at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington before this. It was overwhelming. I’d always been a good, studious student, but school was getting to be too much.

I took the hardest classes because I loved learning, but instead of facilitating my learning, it felt like I was caught up in a cycle of overwhelming busywork that burned me out. I lost my love of learning. 

New schools are always very scary to go into blind. I knew only one person at Sycamore, and I hadn’t talked to him since elementary school. So you could imagine my relief when, from the moment I walked into Sycamore, I was immediately welcomed. Even on my shadow day, I was invited to go out to lunch with people and was explained the lore of a (only in the US) obscure video game. It was incredibly welcoming and made me excited to go back.

Over the next couple of weeks, I became good friends with people quickly. I learned the lore of several other obscure Japanese video games, and met people I’ll probably be friends with for the next 10 years. Even outside my established friend group, everyone was very kind and respectful and willing to work with me on things, even though I was the new kid.

On one of my very first days, we had a debate to participate in. I felt very included and appreciated and listened to by my new peers in the debate group. The school is so kind to new students, and especially with the small classes, it’s very inclusive. You don’t get lost in a big room or put aside as the new kid, and everyone wants to talk to you.

When I came back the next week, the other big thing that stood out to me was the lack of homework and busywork. I was able to work on myself–I started working on my Eagle Scout project, finally (which I finished this March!) and was able to start sleeping well again.

It was so nice to be able to go home and not do what I’d been doing previously–opening my computer after one glass of water and working for the next two hours. One night in particular, I realized I had nothing to do, and it was amazing just to have a night to myself. I actually read a book I’d had sitting on my nightstand for months.

I was able to keep challenging myself. I could ask for more difficult assignments, and was challenged at a rate that I could keep up with. I was allowed to change the rate of difficulty, and I regained my love of challenging myself with difficult work quickly, like within the first couple weeks even.

Moving to Sycamore has been a giant help for my mental and academic health, and I’m very glad that I did. It’s a super welcoming school that lets you actually be a teenager, not an adult.