The life of a high school student is a stressful one. With countless amounts of homework and tests, extracurricular activities, and college applications, there is hardly ever time to take a break.
According to the 2013 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), 83 percent of American teenagers reported that school is a significant source of stress, and 37 percent felt depressed or sad because of that stress. After two years of being surrounded by fellow students who expressed anxiety and uneasiness about school, seniors Adelyn Yau and Natalie Tussy decided to do something about it.
Last September, Yau and Tussy formed the Happiness Club, a club devoted to making student’s lives a little bit easier.
“Adelyn and I know how much high school students have to deal with, so we wanted to form a club that does little things to make a person’s day better. Just little things because, in my opinion, small acts of kindness can go a long way,” said Tussy.
Throughout the 2013 and 2014 school year, the Happiness Club organized various acts of kindness to help boost morale on the Carlmont campus.
“We passed out free candy during finals week, and we teamed up with the Associated Student Body (ASB) to do an event in the quad where we had students write what makes them happy on a whiteboard,” said Yau.
This year, the Happiness Club plans to reduce stress around Carlmont in a different way. “Because the leaders of the club are now seniors, we thought it would be better to have big events during finals week and AP testing. One of our ideas is to give free hot chocolate in the quad during the winter,” said Tussy.
Whether it’s doing the little things like handing out candy or doing the big things like giving away hot chocolate, the Happiness Club’s main goal is to just make people happy.
“Seeing people stressed out stresses me out, so if we could make Carlmont a happier place, even just a little bit, then I’d say we did our job,” said Tussy.
