TEENAGER- How to be? How to stand? What to wear? Should I lend a hand?
When to laugh? When to cry? How to hide all that’s inside? To wear
my hair low or high? How to make the time rush by? What to do? When to
speak? How to stop my flushing cheeks? How to say? How to be? Once and
for all, Who is me?
A lot has changed over the years, from schools, jobs, laws, and even religion.
But, there is one thing that hasn’t changed. It is an old saying
that people used to say about teenagers. SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK AND ROLL.
The way teens act now shows that saying still is true. Well, a few things
have changed and not for the better. Now all teens are interested in is
Sex, drugs, drinking, pranks, and driving. You asked me to write about
the most difficult issue facing teens. I can’t do that, there are
way to many to choose from. But, what I believe is the main cause of all
this is one thing. PEER PRESSURE. Now, you will finally be able to understand
how teens think about drugs, sex, pranks, drinking, and driving.
I go to a collaborative school in Fitchburg, because of some problems
I was going through. My class, consists of me, five guys, Dr. Chates,
the director, Mr. A, the teacher, and a crazy Russian women who is the
aide. I have learned more from them about these issues then I ever would
have at Leominster High School.
Every morning when we come to school we do this activity called REC AND
ANGLE (rectangle). What we do is we all sit around a table and talk about
everything. From things they did over their weekend, or how they went
to bed late last night. Some of the things I’ve heard are unbelievable.
One of my good friends there was a drug dealer, he was only 14. FOURTEEN!!
He has been in and out of court for a while. So, that is how a lot of
people judge him, the "Drug Dealer." Then, when you really talk
to him, you realize how nice he is, and that tough guy stuff is just an
act. I will never forget the day he came in to school and he looked like
a mess. I have a mood ring my sister gave me and he asked to put it on.
I let him and it turned black.... which means severely depressed. I asked
him what was up and he told me he was trying to help his dad take a bath
earlier, because his dad was dying. So, on one side there was a drug dealer,
and I’m proud to say he hasn’t done drugs in over three months.
On the other side, there is a kid who’s life got screwed up because
he got caught up in the wrong crowd and made some wrong decisions, and
now a lot of people won’t give him another chance.
We have another kid there, he on the other hand is a different story.
He has been in a residential home for over six years, he just got out
and was sent here. He has been in and out of court, and even was in jail
for a while. As he came to our school the first day we were all a little
scared, and very judgmental. We soon learned, he was so nice and just
really messed up big time. This friend of mine is trying, he is trying
to become a better person. He is a seventeen year old kid, and his reading
is at a first grade level. With some of the teachers, myself, and some
of my other classmates, he is learning how to read. On a Friday as we
were getting ready to leave school I found out that it was his birthday
on Monday. I bought him a card and a cake and my sister who didn’t
even know him drew him a picture. It was his 18th birthday, a big one.
I was kind of ashamed because the cake’s frosting was kind of screwed
up and I didn’t really know what to say to him in the card. I wished
I could have done so much more for him. As I gave him the picture my sister
drew he told me he was going to hang it up on his wall. At lunch time
we surprised him with the cake and when he realized I gave it to him he
said thank-you, and I couldn’t have been happier. Then, I gave him
my card, and as I helped him read it I thought to myself. Why do we judge
people so fast? Yes, he has made A LOT of mistakes, but he is human. He
is sorry for what he had done. One day we were having a serious talk,
and I asked him about jail. He was only in there for a week. But, while
he was there not one person visited him. Not anyone, friends, parents,
relatives. He told me how scared he was and how everyone was mean to him.
So, yes, he does drugs, he drinks, has sex, but, he has feelings. He was
pressured into doing these things in the first place. Don’t get me
wrong that isn’t an excuse but, it is hard to say no sometimes. These
two kids stories about their lives remind me of this poem. It is called
"you tell on yourself," and this is how it goes:
You tell on yourself by the friends you seek.
By the very manner in which you speak.
By the way you employ your leisure time.
By the use you make of dollar and dime.
You tell what you are by the things you wear.
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear.
By the kinds of things at which you laugh.
By the records you play on the phonograph.
You tell what you are by the way you walk.
By the things of which you delight to talk.
By the manner in which you bear defeat.
By so simple a thing as how you eat.
By the books you choose, from the well-filled shelf; in these ways and
more, you tell on yourself;
So there’s really no particle of sense
In an effort to keep up a false pretense.
Another one of my good friends go there. I have become close with this
kid, because we were kind of the same, and we lived kind of close so we
knew of the same places. Now, this friend of mine doesn’t drink,
do drugs, or smoke. But, he was a prankster. He would throw soda bottles
out of car windows on other cars. He would egg and throw things at other
people and objects. He knew this was wrong, but he found enjoyment out
of it. He did it with all of his friends, and to him because his friends
did it, it was okay to hurt other people for their own amusement. So,
yea, he doesn’t do the "bad things" most teenagers are
known for doing. He does something worse, he hurts strangers so him and
his buddies can have some fun.
Now, we have two other students there. The "different" ones
a lot of us would call them. One, is kind of on the gothic side, a nice
boy, extremely intelligent, but has a temper problem. The other, very
hyper and talks a lot. Most people will stereotype them because they are
different.
I will admit I judged one of the guys when he first came because he was
different and everyone else judged him to. So, I got caught up in peer
pressure because I copied my friends to believe he was weird. As, I talk
with the more gothic kid, I realize if everyone looked, talked, and thought
the same life would be so boring. We are all different, as you can probably
tell from just the kids at my school. I feel like we are the kids on the
breakfast club. It is an older movie with a bunch of different kinds of
kids locked up in a room all day in detention. It showed how they bonded
and became close despite their different personalities. I feel like we
are them, but with different titles. We would be known as, the drug dealer,
the jailbird, the prankster, the Goth, the crazy one, and the emotional
one. We are each different because we all feed off each other and act
different. There is a chain reaction, the drug dealer learned from another
drug dealer, the prankster learned from another prankster, the one that
has sex learns from the one that talks about it all the time. Together
we make up our world of teens, and we have to learn from our own and others
mistakes and we can’t judge people from their appearance or past.
Give everyone a chance, they ALL have something good in them. That is
the best I can do trying to help you figure out teenagers and the issues
they face. But, I want to leave you with one more poem that I think fits
perfectly with this. It is called, "please look a little deeper."
Please don’t judge me by my face, by my religion or my race.
Please don’t laugh at what I wear. Or how I look or do my hair.
Please look a little deeper- Way down deep inside,
and although you may not see it, I have a lot to hide.
Behind my clothes, the secrets lie, behind my smile, I softly cry.
Please look a little deeper, and maybe you will see the lonely little
girl that lives inside of me.
Please listen carefully to her- she’ll show that she’s insecure.
Please try to be a friend to her And show her that you care.
Please just get to know her And maybe you will see, that if you just look
deep enough, you'll find the real me.
Now, you know, me, my friends, and all the other teens in the world. We
are all different but in a way the same.
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