Judgy, Judgy, Judgy

All teens are the same. 

You cannot find a more judgmental, crazy, dumb or false statement than that. People hear a few horror stories about a half dozen teens in the nation, and immediately jump to the conclusion that all teens are like that.

I've heard it said at least a dozen times that high school is harder than college. Of course, that may depend on what school you go to, and what classes you take. But for the most part, yeah. It is true. In college, you choose your courses. You come to class wearing whatever you want and stay as long as you want. Usually you'll have a few hours of school in the morning and then you're done for the day. In college, you can pretty much whatever; granted you probably won't get the best grades if you constantly skip class, but you won't be slammed with detentions if you have to miss a day. 

So yeah, I believe high school is a heck of a lot harder than college. We just want to relax and let loose a bit. At the end of the week, all we want to do is have fun and pretend, even if for only a day, that we don't have hours worth of homework sitting in our rooms just waiting to be done.

No one can really understand how stressful being a teenager in the 21st century. It's a whole different ballgame compared to when our parents were at this age. More homework, harder homework, and you have to find that balance between social and school life or you'll get seriously depressed. You need a few awesome friends, who really get you, and sometimes it takes a while to find those friends. You have to decide which college you want to go to, and then make sure you have all the requirements just to apply. Then, in your junior year, you have to massively study for the ACT/SATs, in addition to the more/harder homework. Then you've got all your extracurriculars, on top of the average 4-5 hours of sleep that most teens get every night, which is barely half of how many hours people between 13-18 years old need. 

So next time, before you judge a "troublesome" looking group of high school students standing around outside a Walgreens, try to remember that it's difficult it is to be a teenager in the 21st century. We're pulled in all directions, trying to live for today while also planning for the future.