“Come on, be more positive”.
A phrase that is MUCH easier said than done.
School is ending for the summer, exams are now over for most, and everything is pretty chilled out. Except for some - where you’re concentrating on a career that hasn’t even begun, alongside studying and not completely flopping your A Levels, relationships, friends, family, part-time jobs… the list goes on and on.
I’m currently 17 and studying for my A Levels, and let me tell you, it’s bloody hard work. For someone who has never been particularly academic, it’s not as easy as some people say. Obviously, you get those kids who are totally all-rounded in every single subject that every existed and are achieving A* after A* at ease. But then you also get the kids who try just as hard in their subjects, and just can’t achieve the same results and this automatically makes them ‘less capable’.
Less capable! It’s like if you’re not the best of the best, then you’re just ‘average’. It really doesn’t help that everybody is constantly on your case asking what you’re going to do with the rest of your life, when the reality is you don’t even know what you’re bloody having for dinner that night.
Personally, I still don’t know what I want to do ‘specifically’. Don’t get me wrong, I have an idea, it’s just that I don’t want to limit myself to one thing and have to do that for the rest of my life, you know?
Some of my friends have known what they wanted to do from quite literally the minute they came out of their mother gave birth to them, “I want to be a doctor and I’m going to do everything I can to be one”. I respect their motivation and everything, but I respect even more the fact that some people have even less of a idea than me, and are still managing to stay positive.
“You don’t have anything to be bothered about. You’re young - there’s no pressure”. Hm. What am I meant to say to that? The easiest thing to do is just accept what they say and move on because it’s not worth the argument, tbh.
However, the kinds of pressures that teenagers experience will often lead to negatives. Mental health is one of the biggest issues throughout the world right now, and still seems to be a growing problem even though it’s so widely acknowledged. Why? Because people feel like they can’t talk about their feelings without being judged. But you know what? I can guarantee you pretty much every person you know has felt a similar way before, and that’s what more people need to realise. It’s easy to confide in people who you talk to on a regular basis and would consider your ‘friends’, however it’s through rough patches like this where you realise who your true friends are - because they’ll never judge you for feeling the way you’re feeling.
Sixth form can be pretty rubbish; theres a lot of random people who you see on a daily basis but you’ve never actually spoken to them, and yet they still feel as if they have the right to judge you! (A total shambles, right?) But those people are the kind of people who we don’t need while we’re here trying to create positive vibes. 💁🏼♀️
You’re not ‘weird’ or abnormal’ to be feeling as if everything is going rubbish, because sometimes things do go wrong. People are quick to comment on other people’s lives - sometimes too quick - and it’s not always a wanted opinion.
The truth of it is: others may not always realise what is going on in another person’s world, but you should never just assume that someone is fine, because more often that not, they may not be. We have bad days, we get upset, we feel as if we won’t be able to cope with the next few months because there’s so much being thrown at us… but then we get past it! The levels of positivity that teenagers are able to keep is pretty inspiring, if you ask me.
And YES I know I myself am a teenager, but I’m really quite proud of not just my friends, but teenagers in general for being able to cooperate with all the shit that gets thrown at them. As well as myself, for learning that my ‘best’ is sometimes all I have to offer, and if that’s not good enough? Then you just gotta move on really. 😽