This is the time where I throw out my seemingly unpopular opinions of my own generation. This isn't as random as it seems. I have been wanting to write something/film a video about this topic for a while now but I've feared the feedback (let's just pretend I get feedback, okay?) Today in my choir class (again, random) we were discussing, long story short, how the current generation of teenagers functions.
It's no secret that my generation doesn't seem to be able to function without technology/social media. I'm not going to lie, I am also guilty of this most of the time. However, I will slightly toot my own horn and say that I genuinely do not believe that I am as bad as the others. I look around at kids in my classes who are constantly on cell phones. I look at the teacher struggling to grasp the attention of the distracted teens, and it just breaks my heart. We are constantly searching for different realities, being oblivious and unfocused on what is actually around us. I have teachers who are retiring this year, or teachers that I have become close to over my high school years and I want to be able to hold onto the time with them as long as I can and listen to their countless, irrelevant to the class, stories while I still can.
I have never seen so much disrespect to teachers since being in school, let alone high school. One would think that as we get older, we would get more mature, however in a lot of cases at my school, many kids make the opposite transitions. The things that I hear teens say nowadays in casual conversation would get me slapped when I was younger. The most heartbreaking thing is watching the sweetest teachers just stand there and take the disrespect.
This post wasn't meant to be storytime of how much I don't understand teenagers. I want to target this post to all of the adolescents who hopefully will not beat me up for writing this.
Respect your teachers. They're just trying to help you. Let them do that to the best of their ability.
I understand being a teen is really hard. (Trust me. Spoiler alert: My next post will be about anxiety and panic attacks.) But taking all of your personal struggles out on other people WILL NOT SOLVE ANYTHING.
Getting massively drunk/high/insert other bad choices here at your cute little freshman parties doesn't make you look cool. It makes you look like an idiot.
You don't need 50 friends to be happy. If you have about 3, you're golden.
As difficult as it is, at least try your hardest to enjoy high school. Most people only get to experience it once.
Your teachers are a lot more fun when you're not mean to them. They're human beings with feelings too. Once you get to know them, they're pretty cool people.
Step away from the Internet for a while. Pick up a book. Go out with friends or family. It does a lot for the anxiety levels. (I say this from personal experience. This is another look into my next post.)
Don't walk as slow as you can in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you.
Also don't make out in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you even more.
Don't try to grow up too fast. This is not your time to "make mistakes and do stupid things." It should never be your goal to make mistakes. You have your whole life in front of you and there's an entire world out there that most of us have not seen yet. I want all of us to get to experience it. Take things slow. So many beautiful, amazing, and terrible things will happen to each and every one of us in our lifetimes and I can't wait to witness every moment for myself.
I just want this to make an impact on one person. Because I know if I stood on a stage in front of my whole school and said all of these things (which would never ever happen) it would end in roaring laughter. But hey, I tried!
None of us are guaranteed tomorrow and it would be a shame to be told "you have one week to live" and know that there are some people who have no interest in seeing all of the wonderful things that life has to offer.
Maybe I've watched The Fault In Our Stars too many times, but it is a good life and it sucks that some people don't get to experience it for very long and the ones who do, don't appreciate it.
If this has put you in at least a mildly good mood, it would make me really happy if you could send it to someone and try and spread it around to reach as many (specifically teenagers, but really whomever) lives as possible.
Alright, have a nice night.
