Stress, stress, STRESS!!

      College. AP. Part-time job. Friends. Holidays. Homework. Homework. Homework. Test. Test. Test. No money. No game plan. Sports. Volunteering. Clubs (the school kind). HELP!~
       This is the reality of the average teen, living under a blanket of pure stress. Free time is a thing of the past, because that paper isn't going to write itself. Honestly, I wonder if they shouldn't have psychiatrists seeing people over the lunch hour. It's really ridiculous. There's so much pressure to go to college and be successful that some students don't even make it to college. If you can't handle the burden you won't succeed. I can't wait to have only a job! I'll have free time again, and no more homework, oh it'll be Heaven. Sure, there's a huge load of responsibilities, but at least I don't have to care about what some dead guy says anymore. Don't get me wrong, I like learning, or at least, I tell myself that. But the workload and stress of school are unbearable. I spend most of my waking hours doing something school related, which seriously limits my ability to become famous.
         How can I become famous if I don't have time to practice my art? I used to draw during class, but now I can't because if I don't pay attention I will surely fail; mostly because I don't have time to study. If it's not due the next day I won't do it, not because I'm lazy, but because I just don't have time. Although there is this annoying habit I have...hmmm...what's it called again? Oh yeah! Sleep. Yeah...takes up quite a bit of time really.
       On a slightly more serious note, I'm definitely not the only one who feels this way.
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6221872) Many of us don't have a serious mental disorder from the stress, but we're not doing our health any favors. We gain weight, we get even less sleep than the approximate four hours we're allotted (we'll if you're in AP anyway), and we have regular mental breakdowns. Maybe I'm biased, but this is not ok! School is about LEARNING, not filling out forms and praying you'll get a good enough job to afford that expensive school you wanted to go to.
      I'm sick of watching my friends cry, and I'm pretty sick of crying myself. The stress is bad enough until you reach Christmas time. The roads are awful and most of us have to drive on them. There's presents to be bought, which is expensive, so you have to work more (because you can't afford to miss out on a single opportunity to raise money for that huge bill coming up), not to mention get all of your homework done in between that. Oh, and most families have several holidays, and not just Xmas. So instead of being the most "wonderful time of the year" it's the most stressful. Once again: HELP!
       I've thought about it, and the main problem is this: AP Classes. I think we should ditch the idea entirely. They are NOT like college and they DO NOT really help students learn anything! What good is a test geared class really? College classes do NOT meet everyday, so when you're assigning the same amount of homework a college kid would get, you're not thinking about how much more TIME the college kid gets. And another thing, yes college tests are hard, but they are not as intense as AP. I have relatives who have just recently graduated and they cannot believe my workload from only TWO AP classes. So...why take AP? Well, for one, your school pressures you into it. They send you letters and telephone you in the summer, encouraging you to take them. They hand out special awards so the poor overstressed kids can feel like it was worth it. They give you the it'll prepare you for the next level excuse and they make the other classes PATHETICALLY non-challenging, and thus, boring. The problem is, they all give you a huge workload. Now, most of my classes I WAS warned, so I was expecting this, but the poor Sophomores aren't! Somebody needs to tell them what they're really signing up for.
    That isn't to say challenging yourself is bad, but putting yourself in a ridiculously difficult environment that isn't like most college courses are. The tests they want us to take are absolutely ludicrous, and they act like they are going to shave our college bill by a ton, which I swear, they won't. You might be able to skip one single semester, but it's not going to save you as much money as you're going to spend trying to take the test, between workbooks, material costs (papers, pencils, and computer ink), buying more medicine to fight stress-born illness, and the cost of taking the test.
   Why can't students learn in a stress free environment and still feel challenged? Can't something be done to make this less of an emotional turmoil?