We're Scared Of Becoming Nobody

Sports turned into competition. Cake turned into salads. Counting turned into the SATs and Boards. Expectations turned into reality. Growing up can grant you more freedom, but it also hands you more responsibility and higher expectations. Choosing schoolwork over mental health because of deadlines and grades. Making sure your body, personality or how you present yourself is pleasing enough to meet “society’s expectations”. Being afraid to show your true self because it might be socially ostracized. These are just few of the things I could name which drive teenagers over the age. Adults do not realize the pressure that teenagers face every single day, and parents don’t realize the small, occasional things they do, like comparison or not appreciating effort, can affect their child so much. “You’re not a kid anymore” “Why don’t you study more” “I’m saying this for your own good”.

Sometimes teens would like to just take a break from all the madness and just hear “You did good. I’m proud of you”. Because instead of wanting to become somebody, now we are just scared of becoming nobody.