For all the juniors in high school, spring season is testing season. The single most important semester of one’s high school career. Faced with the ACT, SAT, SAT subject tests, finals, GPAs, and projects piled up to the ceiling, in addition to beginning the college search, students are bound to get overwhelmed.

Everyone’s in the same boat. We all have projects. We all have tests. We all have that one teacher who decides to throw in a pop quiz on a day when we’re running on four hours of sleep. Unfortunately, that’s what happens when the year comes to a close.

Every generation has been faced with difficulties, some more than others. This generation is faced with an extremely competitive academic atmosphere.

Some kids come home, sit down, and rant about their day. All the work, how it’s unfair, and how they just can’t do it…so they won’t.

“I swear mom, our teacher didn’t teach us this at all, that’s why I got a C,” or, “The test was just too hard, practically everyone did bad, I couldn’t control it.”

Thanks to AP Psychology, I now know those are examples of someone with an external locus of control. Meaning, they think they have no control over situations; that outside factors determine their personal outcomes.

Yes, this way of thinking is an easy trap to fall into…and yes, we are all guilty of doing it at one point or another. But it will accomplish nothing. By the time you’ve stopped ranting, the school year will have ended and your GPA is still half of what it was first semester. Nothing has changed.

But the kids that make things happen…the go-getters, the doers, the ones with ambition…those are the kids who accomplish something. The people that become leaders in society. Because these people may get frustrated like everyone else, but they can see the path that will lead them to success.

In psychology terms, these are the people with internal loci of control. They know that the only person standing in the way of their success is themselves.

All it comes down to is this: there are two types of people in the world. The doers and the complainers. I’m sure there’s a consensus that this semester for juniors was the worst one yet, and I agree. But the world is full of challenges; it’s how you react to them that will define your success. Because it’s tough love. Don’t be a complainer, be a doer.