Tired. Exhausted. Worn out. Fatigued. Deadbeat. That’s what a lot of us teenagers are. As high schoolers, we are going through a huge transition from being a child to becoming a mature young adult. There is so much pressure from parents and family members who are always asking what we want to be and what college we want to attend. They’re constantly nagging and reminding us how little time we have left like we aren’t already aware of how rapidly our childhood is being snatched away.

All of that is within the near future. But what about present day? Right now we are being swamped with aggravating arduous math classes where we are forced to learn things we will never see again in this “big future” ahead of us, homework by the dozen-million, annoying teachers (some are alright), and parents’ bossing commands. And on top of all that, we have to deal with these things called hormones that seem as though they have tantrums every five minutes.

Sounds terrible, right? Now try dealing with that on a few hours of sleep. I know there’s some adult reading this right now saying how they’ve got it worse, how we don’t know the half of it and how we need to just go to sleep early. Well guess what, studies have shown that we can’t just go to sleep early. Our teenage bodies won’t let us! We’ve really got it hard. Now the adult reading this is probably saying we should cherish our teenage years and stop complaining. We would, but you don’t allow us to!

If we are constantly being pressured by parents, teachers and the entire world ahead of us, what is there to enjoy? We get on our phones to relieve some stress and take a break from life, but then are told we spend too much time on them. My entire point is that sometimes we need a break. We are still learning the ways of the world that we are preparing to embrace on our own someday. Sometimes it’s very difficult since it’s always changing. When us teens aren’t given a break, sometimes, we break, and not always are we put back together again like Humpty Dumpty. Many teens commit suicide because of stress. Please just acknowledge that we get tired, and just because we are young doesn’t mean that we are invincible. Give us credit. Let us enjoy the little time we have left to be a teenager because these are the years that we will always want back.