Teenagers are very fickle. One minute we are sweet as can be, the next, we want to bite someone’s head off. We are underrated and most of the time, our behavior is explained by “phases”. We are ignored, and then yelled at because we want to be noticed. Our world is confusing enough without all the high school drama and prepping for college. In a day, I hear “that will look good on a college app” about 10 times. I hear that phrase more than “I love you”. Unsettling, isn’t it?

            From the minute we start freshman year, to the days leading up to our graduation, all we think about is getting into college. High school is a flash of tests, college visits, applications, and demands. We are told we need to know what we want to study and do with the rest of our lives, people want us to make life changing decisions, and most of us can’t even decide what we want to wear that day without changing five times. Maybe we do plan out our lives freshman year, then we totally change our minds junior year, by that time, we already on track for our first plan, and the fear sets in, you start to scramble around to start getting new requirements filled, is it too late though?

            The pressure we feel is a lot and some of us crack under it. Does it make us better?  Honestly, who knows? It doesn’t really make sense to make teens plan out there futures at 16, by then, the only big thing we’ve accomplished is driving, and even then, that’s not very life changing. I can’t say with confidence at 17 I want to pursue a career in medicine, or law, or even if I want to work at McDonald’s. I’m sure nothing will change in a year. By the time I’m 18, nothing is going to change. I won’t have the experience to say I what I want to study. We spend 13 years studying general things like math, science and English, how should I know if I would be interested in investing thousands of dollars into an education in Communications.

So why are me made to pick a career path at 16?

I know it’s for a general plan, but it is still life changing, we need more experience to plan our futures. Not all will agree with me, some have known what they have wanted to do since they were a child. However, not everyone is like that, like I said, teenagers are fickle beings, and we can’t be expected to make our minds up about our outfits and food, let alone our futures.