Your grade in chemistry might hinge on your performing well on the final exam.
You might not get the SAT score you need to be competitive for your dream college.
You may not get into AP US history next year.
You might not get elected to be the president of the student body.
Your college interviewer may ask you a question you can’t answer.
You may not get accepted to your favorite college.
Could those things happen? Sure. But what’s absolutely certain is that worrying about them won’t change the outcome.
Worrying about something doesn’t make things better. If anything, worrying makes it harder to do the work that could actually influence the result. I see this often with the most stressed out students and parents. They’re spending so much time worrying that they can’t focus on the productive steps they could take to actually improve things. If you’re worried about your college applications but you haven’t started them yet, it’s happening to you. If you lay awake at night worrying your student won’t get into Yale but forget to remind him that you’re already proud of him for working so hard, it’s happening to you.
Don’t let worrying distract you from what needs to get done. Lots of things you do can change the outcomes. Worrying isn’t one of them.