Life After the Teen Movie

Life is coming fast. Graduation is around the corner. Adulthood is awaiting you. Pressure is mounting. Questions of plans, goals, and schools are piling up on your conscience. Test scores instead of social lives, scholarships rather than friends, and applications take place of sleep. The idea that an eighteen year old is subjected to this lifestyle is mind boggling. Huge books from the Princeton Review on how to pass every test sit on student's desk rather than notes from the class. Heads rest on desk exhausted from the strain of their lives. High school seniors are overwhelmed by a life that they are often forced to lead. Several people and institutions are to blame for this and unlike many I am not afraid to assign blame. First we look at the ones with the greatest power over a child's decision, the parents. Hours of studying for tests that are presented as determining factors of success consume teenagers' lives. Diversifying resumes and applications by joining multiple sports teams, sprinkling in some academic clubs, while volunteering for hours on end. This does not help lead a balanced life but rather pushes kids to be overworked, sleep-deprived, and mentally fatigued. These symptoms of stress and heavy workloads in turn make the execution of said workload not to the same standards often set by parents. Parents create a snowball that they can not stop because often it is too late. We also must fault the high school propaganda pushing kids to participate in everything under the moon. School systems are often worried about image and numbers and this causes an unhealthy push towards an extremely heavy load. For so long school have also perpetuated this lie that college is the sole choice after graduation. College was the choice of "successful" people. This just is not the case. Trades are being taught at two-year schools with huge starting salaries. Hourly workers can climb their way up the chain of command easier than Business majors can find jobs. The military is willing to take and train the best and brightest the United States had to offer. University is not the only option, and last but not least we can blame the institutions themselves. From 1979 to 2019 prices have risen around 230% due to inflation while college tuition in the same time frame has risen by more than 1300%. The inflation of college tuition has made scholarships, financial aid and part-time jobs necessary to attend a university. Teenagers and college students are not calling for free college in most cases but rather for affordable college. While their pleas fall on deaf ears they will continue to undertake so much responsibility to stay afloat financially while receiving their education. Children are becoming depressed, developing anxiety disorders, and experiencing suicidal thoughts due to the amount of stress that comes with the end of high school. We must take a hard look at how we approach preparing kids for their future while calling on high schools and colleges to change their routine. Just a thought.