A collection of self-help ideas, motivation, story rejects, poems, and bits of humor for the sad soul. These are random bits of satirical, sarcastic and upright stupid nonsense compiled into a creation that's meant to help average teenagers get out...
You ever feel like all you do is school or work? Welcome to the club. A little bit of my schedule during school time:
M: 6 am seminary, college
T: 6 am sem., college, theatre
W: 6 am sem., college, theatre, church
Th: 6 am sem., college, theatre
F: 6 am sem., work
St: nothing if I'm lucky
Sn: Church
Mix in homework and other miscellaneous activities. It doesn't really seem like much when you put it on a list, but I am usually up till 12:30-1am and wake up at 5:30.
My question for you is: Do you feel like you have so much pressure to be a perfect student/kid that you find that it's all you're ever trying to do? You don't have time to go to your friend's birthday party? You don't have time to read or publish on Wattpad? You can't sit down and enjoy a meal because you're cramming for your finals? Even today on a Sunday (which I usually reserve for church stuff) I've had to do some schoolwork. I have this impending fear that I'll fail college if I get anything below an "A" in my classes. Whereas most people are happy just to get a 73%.
Maybe that's just me. So how do you balance it all? You've got to have time to be a teenager at some point, right? You have to make room for fun. One of the things I struggle with (and most people do) is procrastination. I don't want to do what I'm supposed to and I wait until the very last minute to get anything done. It's not an effective way to be productive.
If you want to be better than me, just wait until you have a majority of your work done before you come read Letters to My Life. It won't make a difference to me. (Okay, if you want to procrastinate, do it here, I won't tell).
The truth is that education is extremely important. You should be trying to learn as much as possible while you can. Not for the test scores and not for a job, although those are important too, because ultimately, your knowledge is what you take with you the rest of your life and into your immortal life (if you believe in life after death).
But none of that is any reason to feel pressured into doing better than everyone. Knowledge should be something you gain because you want to.
(I'm reading a book on Texas school systems right now, so I'll have some actual facts in here at some point).
American and Texas schools are so focused on testing that they fail to let students actually learn. It's a learn it and forget it type of environment. I distinctly remember in 4th grade (when the schools switched from the TAKS test to the STAAR test) that I was so pressured to get a good grade and make A's and be "above average" that I missed an entire week for "being sick". I have the report card to prove this too. This happened twice. AND IT WAS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! Looking back on it, I can't remember a single thing I learned in public school other than art and dissecting a sheep brain in the G.T. class.
"All around the country, cutting-edge school districts were administering annual tests to certain grades, and using them to determine how well individual schools were performing." -Gail Collins, As Texas Goes. She goes on later to say that teachers had to stop teaching what they usually would and what the students loved to learn - all for the sake of these tests. Because if they didn't show good results, the school could eventually be shut down.
So much pressure is put into kids' heads about making good grades so they can "go to college and get a job", that they don't realize that there are actually many MANY people without college degrees that have better-paying jobs than those with college degrees. Test scores aren't everything.
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Found this on google as well. It makes me feel depressed. But wait, that's why you're here right? So here's one to make you feel better. Not necessarily related to school, but definitely an inspiration.
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(Here would be a perfect spot for you to send me a personal experience, good or bad).
What to Take Away From This: Tests aren't everything. If you feel pressured at school, know that it probably doesn't matter anyway, unless it's something that you feel you're really learning. Don't be discouraged when you make bad grades; you're only a failure if you tell yourself you are.
Thank you for reading, hope your day doesn't suck! -Sam
