Drew+G's+2015+OpEd+Article

Out Of Step?



Do you remember the red ribbon weeks when little elementary schoolers, and we said we would not smoke or drink? Well…..what happened? The exact opposite. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen pictures on social media or heard stories of “Awwwwww mann, last friday” or “You got so f%^#ed up last weekend”. It just makes me angry because perfectly good people are wasting their life getting wasted, and only living for partying and nothing else. They also use stupid excuses to rationalize their behaviors too, like “I’m young, so that makes it OK” or “Everyone else does it”. Neither of those are rational excuses in my book. First off just because you’re young does not give any excuse, you have to follow the rules just like everyone else, grow up. Also just because everyone else does it does not mean you have to, think for yourself don’t follow the pack. Another problem is why are you spending your entire week looking forward to a night that you will barely remember? Thats just stupid. My final problem with parting is eventually you regret it, why waste your time? Do you want to spend your youth forgetting, and drowning your sorrows, or making actual good ones.

Now why is this such a problem? Its because of all the pressure that is put on teens today. First off we are tricked into thinking that we have to get good grades, so we can get into the perfect college, so then we can have the perfect job and the perfect life. Wow, thats a lot to put on kids that have only been alive for 15 or 16 years. Also we have a society that is obsessed with sex, drugs and alcohol. It’s very hard nowadays to find a TV show that does not show characters that drink, smoke, or have sex. At the same time we have parents and teachers telling us not to do those kinds of things, which makes it very confusing and hard to figure out what to do.

Does this justify partying? No, it does not. You do not need to party at all, there are plenty of other options to have fun. Instead of partying you can focus on something that will be useful in life, like a instrument, sport, writing, dancing etc. You are young and have plenty of time to figure out your life, enjoy your youth while you still have it. Do what you want to, not what anyone else tells you too, what you truly want to do. If that makes you “out of step” well thats just fine.

Where my train of thought is from __ [] __ __ [] __