Your teen years are special years in one’s life. High School and all that it has to offer is a time that one never forgets. Kids are supposed to have fun at football games and homecomings and proms and friends are supposed to be friends that will be remembered well into your older years. Stories you can tell your kids about. But today it seems that teens have so much stress in their lives and it’s not about exams or homework or trying to learn a foreign language. No! Today’s kids have stress because they either meet the standard or they are rejected.
If someone does not go along with the crowd or fit in with the crowd, then they are ostracized and labeled which results in bullying and harassment. You either fit in or you become a loner, left to yourself. High School today can be brutal. If you have a disability of any kind, you are considered odd or weird or lesser than others. Kids will go after you at school or on facebook or other social media just to bully you or embarrass you, make fun of you and reject you. How did we get to be so mean? What happened to just having fun and having school pride and accepting everyone who attends your school? Why such division? School should be like one big family, one for all and all for one. Today, we have so much stress in our schools because of school. We all went to school and had homework and tests and had to work to get into college or get a good job. Today many High School kids work and they have to balance their lives between school and work. But that isn’t anything new, so many kids over the years, worked when they were in High School. Today there are so many kids committing suicide over the stress and over the rejection that they face because they do not fit in with the crowd. Several years ago we went through a pandemic that separated us and now we seem more separated than ever because of it. Covid left us hostile and mean toward others, even our political worldview has become hostile. So many kids have lost their confidence. Social media was all they had to connect them to the world, but social media is no one’s friend. Depression has set in with today’s teens. Some kids could bounce back from the isolation, but others could not. Kids who went to High School in the sixties and seventies all experienced the drugs and the gangs that were in our schools. And yet, we survived. We all went through the physical changes that take place as you grow older and how you can feel awkward. “No!” Today society has changed for everyone. We are not the same people that we once were. Life has changed. We live in a new era and we have not had enough time to change with it. Teens, you must speak out, you must seek out, and you must reach out for help. The answer is not in social media or on TV. or in AI chats. Your friends can not always help you because they, too, may be struggling to get along. Talk to your parents or grandparents or a counselor or a person of faith. Many churches have youth groups. Go and attend them, because chances are you will find kids who will understand how you are feeling, because they too, feel the same way. Do not hold on to a problem thinking that only you can solve it. Do not think that drugs or alcohol or suicide is the answer because it is not. It only hurts the people who care about you. Let me tell you, you are not weird or strange or lesser than others. This is all a lie. Don’t believe it, do give in to it, and do not let it conquer you. You are like any other person and yet, we are not all alike, so why should you be like me or me like you? Social media is not the answer to the world’s problems so do not let it be the answer to yours. If people want to laugh or call you names or even reject you, this only shows how immature they are. Go forward in life and live in the truth and set your mind on your future and you will achieve when you close your ears and your eyes to those who want to be superior to you, and never let them control you. You will get your confidence back, and with that, you will be able to help others who are going through the same difficulties that you once went through. You’re a teen, so be a teen, and enjoy your teen years.
