The phrase “ our century’s hatred” in line 3

Hi, my name is Reno, and I am a senior at Lincoln High School. Let me just tell you that being a student in today’s society is not always easy.

Adults often tell us that we don’t know what stress is and to just wait until we grow up. But we as teenage students have our own levels of stress. For instance, all school activities require you to uphold your grade point average to high standards, along with the expectations that you dedicate any extra time to it day and night.

Then, getting your homework turned in on time seems simple, but you still hope to have a life outside of school as well. Many students in their high school years start their first job, so now you have school in the mornings, followed by responsibilities needing to be taken care of at home and then you’re off to work.

By the time you are done there, you are too exhausted to finish your school work, but you stay up late to try and return to school feeling half conscious the next day. What good is that?

Now, let me remind you that we are becoming young adults, and some of the students have gotten involved in serious relationships, maybe even gotten married. Of course that doesn’t give a free pass that exempts you from homework, but it does make home life stressful when you are trying to have a relationship as well.

Also, more than ever before, young girls are becoming mothers, and that means if she even continues to attend school after giving birth, she is now a full-time mother, as well as trying to accomplish homework assignments just to graduate.

Going through something like that makes you vulnerable to being bullied. These are students who are constantly trying to hide in the background, feeling judged and ridiculed in a place where they should be accepted.

Let’s not forget about peer pressure. All high school students are exposed to it at some point in their life. High school can be a place where students are made fun of, disapproved, singled out and pointed at.

Each of us has a choice on how to accept these challenges in his or her life, and for that, I choose my faith. I have expressed some of the challenges we face in just being a student. Yet, I haven’t even touched on how difficult it is to be a Christian teenager in high school today.

Professing yourself to be a Christian opens a lot of doors where you must defend yourself, like being involved in the Christian Club or even praying at the lunch table before you eat. Being a Christian in high school tests your faith to high measures, watching young women give themselves away, students not caring about their grades, others dropping out and the list goes on and on.

My point is, it is a whole lot more stressful to be a student in high school than adults believe. Though it shouldn’t be this way, it only gets worse as years pass by. And we are constantly being judged, especially for what we believe in.

So our “stress” may not involve paying bills, buying groceries or taking care of a family, but I’m sure if the adults in our lives could go back to school today, they would be surprised at how much it has changed.

I don’t want you to think for a minute that there aren’t good moments and memories made while we are students. We find our friends, our mentors and, if we are lucky, ourselves!

My mom always tells me to enjoy it while I can — ‘it’ being my youth. I know that the world outside of school is often harsh and that the responsibilities are serious. That’s exactly why I know that the focus I give to my future is essential in helping me navigate my way into a career that will allow me to contribute to society and enjoy who and what I become.

I want to remind everyone, including myself, that in this moment, we are as old as we have ever been, and as young as we will be again. Live in the moment! If this was your last moment, would you be able to say you were living? I want to be able to say yes. So that’s what I am trying to do — learning as I go, wearing faith as my armor and knowing that in God’s plan we are all students and teachers, too.

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3 years ago