On Being A Teen

To a teenager, everything feels like the end of the world.

Adults point and laugh, “Look at them freaking out like Chicken Little, don’t they know everything will turn out fine? I got into college and graduated and got a nice job, they can too.”

But to Chicken Little, the end of the world felt incredibly real and increasingly imminent.

The college you got into twenty years ago would not accept that same resume now. Little do you know, the acceptance rate has plummeted twenty percent. Yet you hold me to the same standards.

In the same breath, I am told that failure is unavoidable but if I fail then I am doomed to be a failure myself.

Below a 90 on a test is unacceptable, but God why are you so stressed out? Be a teen! Take a breath! Go hang out with friends!

Be apart of as many extracurriculars as possible and join lots of clubs! You also need time for your job and all the extracurriculars are going to overlap, but that’s ok, right? You’re 17 you can figure it out on your own!

It has now become the norm to have a mental illness. Almost everyone in my friend group has constant anxiety and gone through a depressive episode, myself included (clinically diagnosed with depression). When did that happen and why is everyone so okay with it? If everyone started cutting off their arms, people would freak out. But drowning yourself in homework and impossible expectations to the point of tears is just fine.

The world has a plethora of problems, no one is denying that. The question is: if the youth are the leaders of the future, why don’t you care about us?