The following open letter from a teenager is by Naomi DeLaet, a freshmen at Plainwell High School in Michigan.
Dear World,
Please stop telling us that high school is going to be the best four years of our lives.
Itâs not.
Most of us are lucky to not cry three or four times a week, or to not break down completely because of stress. And thatâs the best case scenario.
We do understand why the academic parts are so hard. We know we need that to prepare ourselves for college. We also know we need to get jobs, and to do a sport (or maybe two or three), because sports are important and Mom really likes seeing us in that jersey. We need to socialize with our families. And besides that, if we donât pass our classes then shame will fall on the entire family, andâŠ
Suddenly thereâs not enough time in the year to do it all, much less do it all every day, for four years.
World, itâs not exactly fair for you to claim weâre all lazy or moody or unsocial, or whatever else you like to dub us as. We really do try. We do our best. For most of us, our best is good enough, and weâre praised for it⊠and constantly used as a comparison bar for the rest of us. Diversity, appreciated or not, exists in everything, and high schoolers are no exception. Some of us, both in and out of the ring, just have better skills, better luck, or better help. And thatâs not our fault. Sometimes, the ring is to blame.
The âringâ, being, of course, not some Lord of the Rings reference, but an analogy to a fighting ring.
School.
Most of us agree education is important, and that weâre lucky to live in a first-world country where we have a school. And that is true. We are extremely fortunate. But for many who go, school can be a little on the Please Get Me Out Of Here side of the spectrum. And itâs not because of the curriculum.
In a school environment, we not only have to worry about passing our classes and the academic aspects; we also worry about the social part. This means understanding the etiquette of making friends, keeping them, and following all the social cues that didnât come listed in the Student Handbook. These rules are hard to follow, and not everyone feels bound to uphold them. High school sometimes feels like a piranha tank thatâs been mistaken for a nice, unassuming goldfish bowl.
After looking at this load balanced precariously on our backs, then yes, itâs quite easy to see why so many of us get cranky.
So weâre asking for a bit of elbow room. Just another inch or two. We donât need later curfews or bigger allowances, although those would be nice. And we arenât asking for more college advice, either. Weâve got enough information spinning through our heads already.
What we need is simple: time, patience, and forgiveness.
Itâs not always easy to like us, but giving us time doesnât have to be intimate. It can be as small as going for a fifteen minute run, or explaining a homework problem, or just going past the standard âHow was your day?â question after school. We have something to say, if youâre willing to listen. We also ask you to be patient with us because itâs hard to be a teenager, and weâre not going to learn anything very quickly, whatever youâre trying to teach us. And weâre probably not going to do much of anything right the first time, either, so we need forgiveness. Weâre going to mess up. Grades, social situations, time management; anything and everything. Itâs unavoidable. It is impossible to go through high school and have time to do everything perfectly. That doesnât happen for anyone. (Excluding, of course, teen-fiction book characters, Disney princesses, and aliens.)
So please, please just be understanding.
You were here not so long ago. You remember.
And if you donât, then please try a little harder. And not just to remember your high school days, but to help us out. Itâs a two-way street.
Weâll try harder, too.
Thanks for keeping us,
 Teenagers