For most people at Aspen High School, school is seen as the first building block for the future. What type of future you want to have is supposed to be decided during this time. In making this decision, leaving sophomore year at AHS and entering junior year you are required to figure out whether or not you want to take any International Baccalaureate (or IB) classes, or if you want to do the full diploma. As the current sophomores face this decision, I have frequently been asked what I think the best thing to do is.

For a while I was pondering this myself. Here I am now, an IB Candidate taking five IB courses, only two away from getting the diploma. I get asked all the time why I didn’t just take one more course, why I didn’t spend one more period of my time to “make it all worthwhile.” Well, here is why.

When I was finally able to answer the question of what I wanted, I decided I wanted an experience. The way I see it is that I am here in high school for four years. These are the last times I am going to be able to see my very best friends everyday. These are the last times that I get to say I live right next to my best friend since preschool. So, I made my decision based on the fact that when I look back at high school ten years from now I want to remember spending as much time with my friends and family as possible, not staying home because I had too heavy a workload to go out.

There is, however, the other side. I am still taking five IB courses, my school life isn’t easy. I do homework every night for at least two hours, many nights doing much more. My Sundays are consumed by ACT and SAT practice tests and writing papers and doing math problems. There have been multiple occasions where I have had to go home to finish my work instead of doing something active. Sometimes it’s really hard, but I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad thing. High school is a time to build a foundation you can step up onto to reach the next rung in the ladder. For every person that next step may be different, but for those reading this article and pondering IB Diploma, I have a feeling they consider the next rung to be college. And in this sense, the college mindset, if you can handle it IB Diploma is most likely the best way to go. It challenges every aspect of school, but in a good way. IB forces you to think outside and all around the box.

For me IB Diploma wasn’t a good idea for me simply because I know exactly what I want. I don’t want a career in business, and history class might as well be my bedtime story, so there was no way for me to get the diploma without doing something I really didn’t want to do. There is also the aspect that more than anything I love writing and the arts, and I wanted my transcript to reflect that. So, I chose to take journalism instead of IB Business. I still believe that up to this point that is the best choice for me. I decided to do something that encouraged my love of learning instead of wearing me out .

I like almost every single class I am taking. I feel just as accomplished, maybe even more so, than if I had taken the full diploma. I have more memories of camping and swimming and hiking than I do of spending late nights working on homework. I feel challenged in school, but not so much that the only thing I carry is stress.

Recently I was given some advice. Usually the advice I get as a highschooler is to keep on working hard, to stay in school. This time, however, the perspective was a little different. I was advised not to go home and finish all of my work or to go study more for the ACT, but instead to be sure that the first thing I was focusing on was getting my “Degree in Happiness.”

This “Degree in Happiness” is exactly what I am striving to achieve. To me, this means not doing the diploma. This means maybe not getting into a school like Harvard, but instead to going out and roasting marshmallows with my friends and sitting around a fire. To me, this means my friends and family come before school work. A hike is more important than a small homework assignment I can find time for later.

So, for all considering the diploma, my advice is to be sure that the first thing you are thinking about is your happiness. What will best set you up to be a joyful person? What will best equip you for happiness, and good memories, and an experience you’ll be happy to remember?