A Happy Medium by Erin Murtaugh

The other night something occurred to me. Society places a lot of stress on teenagers today. We feel pressured to fit in, do well in school and are given big life choices to make at a young age. This made me curious, so I did some looking into it. I came across an article on bachelorsdegreeonline.com that gave “15 Serious Facts About High School Stress.”

The facts were eye-opening.

Did you know one in five teens is qualified as clinically depressed? This is actually quite a lot. Where does it come from? Obviously teens go through many things in their lives that can trigger depression, such as tragedy and bullying. So to pinpoint the cause as stress would not be accurate, but I’m sure it is a factor. Following the depression rate, suicide and self-harm rates are also increased. Most of the time, these things go hand in hand, so it makes sense.

Most students consider cheating to be acceptable now. Why is this? Well, students are so pressured to do well that they team up to do their work together or borrow someone else’s work just so they get a good grade. Isn’t it sad that students are under so much stress to do well that they can’t even do their own work with confidence?

Oddly enough, students’ grade-point averages are increasing. This doesn’t surprise me though. If students feel pressured enough to cheat just to do well, don’t you think they would want their GPAs to look good, too?

How about choosing a college? Or even going to college? We feel pressured to go to the best school when maybe it’s not the best choice for the individual. It’s OK to go to Riverland to get generals done to save some money and stress. If that’s your choice, you’re probably making a decision in your best interest.

Cut us some slack; we’re teenagers. We’re expected to screw up and not know what to do. Rather than put so many expectations on us, cheer us on. Give us the encouragement we need to feel like we belong and can succeed. After all, our generation will be in charge of things in a matter of years. Do you want a bunch of overly stressed out people running things? I don’t think so.

 

Albert Lea resident Erin Murtaugh is a senior at Albert Lea High School.