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Know What You Want to Do and When to Stop Imagine growing up in a society where material things are more important than doing the right thing. Imagine going through classes where you have to talk about the dangers of illegal drugs just so adults can say, “They had the choice; they knew what could happen.” Imagine watching your parents fight almost every night, watching your dad beat your mom or vice versa. Imagine a society where kids at age 12 are drinking alcohol and doing drugs. That is what it is like to be a teen in today’s society. In high school it’s all about the cars, curfews, arguing, dances and unfortunately, drinking and drugs. I think if you took a poll at a high school you would find that at least half of the students drink alcohol occasionally. In the older days, maybe it was just plain bad to drink. But now it’s more like, if you choose to drink, don’t drive. Of course, parents don’t want their teens to drink, but they can’t always stop it. They can stop their teen from driving while intoxicated by just pointing out the consequences. Several parents will offer to pick up their teen without asking any questions. I know a lot of my friends argue with their parents about their curfews. A “normal” curfew at age 16 might be 12 o’clock. Then, as you slowly gain their trust by coming in on time and even earlier, you get to stay out later. Every weekend, there’s a party somewhere. You may have to ask around, but there is always a party planned. When you are allowed to stay out later, that means more time to meet the cute guy at the party. Drugs only come into play when you either hang out with people who do drugs or you decide you want to. I think the stress of “peer pressure” is pure BS. No matter how many people are telling you to try this or try that, it’s still up to you. Going out to a party is supposed to be about socializing and hanging out with friends, though some teenagers just think the only reason is to drink. It just matters what friends you hang out with. I know that I can hang out with people drinking and smoking and not do those things. I go to a party to meet the other teenagers. I want to hang out with friends. I don’t want to get drunk or get high. But to most teens, that’s the whole point of going out: to get drunk. Americans can be completely material. Unfortunately, it’s more apparent in teens. There’s no better example than back-to-school shopping. You just have to go shopping to get those low-rise jeans, the Etnies, the Fox Racing label. High school is all about popularity. It’s about whether or not you’re “cool.” It’s not about grades or learning how to become an exceptional citizen. It’s about getting the right clothes and the right friends. It doesn’t matter what you really think; it matters that you conform to what is popular. Americans always have been and always will be competitive. It shows up in high school as trying to outdo everyone else. Several conversations at school on Monday start with: “Guess what I did this weekend?” Then her friend will say, “Well, I went to Taylor’s party on Saturday. I had so much fun, I was gone.” It’s a competition where the winner is the person who was the most wasted and least responsible. A song by the pop-punk band Good Charlotte portrays this really well. One of the lines is, “All of these boys and all of these girls losing their souls in a material world.” Maybe I am seeing the dark side of teenagers. If so, it’s probably because I was one of those girls who went out to get drunk and get high, hang out with friends and meet the cute guy. But I’m happy to say when I was taken out of teen life, I grew up enough to realize you can’t live life that way. Living in teen society is hard; not giving into peer pressure is hard (supposedly). You just have to recognize what you want to do and when to stop. Caroline Ziegler |
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