Brittny is a junior, and this is her first year in the IB program in her high school. This year, she has 4 IB classes and 2 AP classes in addition to various extracurricular activities, including clubs, volunteers, and competitions. She has tons of homework from those rigorous classes. She starts to pull consecutive all-nighters, but the stress and anxiety only got worse. She ended up receiving 2 Cs and 3 Bs. Fortunately, she was courageous enough to seek help and voice her stress to her family and friends. Over achieving is a two sided sward; it enables but also destroys. 

Aaron is a first-year college student. During the Christmas of 2020, he traveled from the US to China to visit his grandparents. Upon arrival, Aaron was in quarantine alone in Guangzhou for a total of 28 days. Finally, he arrived in Hebei but was told to quarantine in his home for another 7 days “just in case.” Aaron began to feel sad and hopeless without reason after the prolonged isolation. Aaron went to see a psychologist and was diagnosed with mild depression. After several therapy sessions he was able to recover gradually.

Herman is an rising Junior in high school. He keeps track of his grades and had always been the teacher’s pet. But Herman feels incompetent when it comes to making friends and dealing with relationships. He recently got involved in a scandal where he fortuitously told a group of girls that a guy from the organization they all belong to was verbalizing behind the girls’ back. Now he was incriminated by the boys. He craves understanding from both sides and is thus disconcerted and torn everyday with how to advocate for himself.

Harry is recently being disturbed by his own objectives. He hopes to get into top 10 ranked universities in the country but his GPA does not meet the requirements of them. But succumbing to his parent’s vigorous will, he is forced to take many AP and honor classes he cannot bear. This had made him exhausted but he feels unable to reject his own parents. Throughout the years his parents' objectives have started to feel like his own. He is struggling to separate himself from the expectation of his parents but found himself powerless.