I had a conversation with a friend the other day. We were both realizing how quickly our childhoods were coming to a close. For anyone who follows my Instagram, I uploaded a few Sweet 16 pictures not too long ago. And while it was nice and dandy just celebrating, it's now a mad dash to adulthood. SAT, ACT, internships, scholarships, volunteer hours, clubs, homework, GPA, etc. And especially with covid robbing me of a normal high school experience, it feels like my teenage years are already gone.
But even before then, high schoolers were already stressed. It feels like all these adults forgot what it's like to be a teenager and while trying to push us to be ourselves, they wind up just pushing us over. Too many people expect so much more from us. I was helping my younger siblings with their homework and was honestly shocked at the difficulty level. The life of a child is progressively getting more and more difficult and too few people are willing to acknowledge it.
They're bringing college info sessions into middle school classrooms, creating selective high schools, making college classes available to younger and younger students, etc. And while this may seem like a good thing on paper, there needs to be a line. The more "opportunities" you open up, the more you push for us to do extra. When you start putting fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds in college-level courses, it becomes almost shameful to not take at least one by the end of high school. And when so many students are pushed into these positions, the students who genuinely just enjoy high school get punished for it.
Why can't I just relax once school is done? Why do I have to volunteer over the weekends? Why is it seen as good for children--because we're talking about 18 and younger here--to just pile extra responsibilities onto themselves?
And this pandemic especially has shown me how obsessed the system is with producing "productive members to society" rather than let us live our lives. Covid and mental illness seem to be going hand-in-hand with so many people of all ages struggling to cope. Yet, students everywhere have been expected to work as normal. Harder even, if you asked my personal opinion. The most support I've received is from other students. Other students are the ones creating support groups, support lines, support shows, etc. And it kills me because I know that they're taking time out of their own depression-ridden days to provide the help that the adults in our lives are failing to give.
Sigh. I know I'm being very critical. I know this is probably just the stress and the hurt talking. But holy damn, I just want...a week. A week off. To breathe. To relax. To just rejuvenate myself. Because in less than two years, I'll be a real adult in the real adult world. If I can rest now, then when?
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