Shelby+E’s+OpEd+Article

To Be a Rebel

Rebel and Shelby Esparza do not exactly compliment each other in any sentence. However, unbelievably, little ol’ Shelby is a teenage rebel. Many of you might not see it, but I am breaking the system. Most of today’s elite is experimenting with illegal activities (alcohol, drugs, sex) at younger and younger ages. In high school, when a friend comes up to you and says he or she went to party this weekend and had one too many to drink it is not that big of a shock anymore. But what is? Pulling a Shelby and saying you went to a party and did not have one sip of alcohol. In high school you are suppose to find out who you really are and where you belong. At Foothill we have our “A listers,” our thrift store hipsters, our punk emos, our photo geeks, our over achiever 5.0 GPA students, our partiers, and every other group a normal public high school would have. Usually each group has certain rules and sometimes there is even a dress code one must abide by in order to be fully accepted into a group. What does this have to do with me? Well I do not follow the rules exactly. I do what I want and do not do what I do not. It is not like me to change because one particular group requires it. Yes, some days my outfit choices land me with a different group then the day prior but I enjoy it. I enjoy the interaction and the group hopping; getting to experience different types of people. The one system I have yet to break is the school system. I have always hated reading and my essays have never been very strong due to my lack of advanced sentence structure and vocabulary. My first step was being accepted into the honors and AP program with my non-advanced thinking and “college prep” class ways. Step 1: done. Step 2 is yet to be completed therefore I cannot share with you what I plan to do, or else that would just ruin all of the fun. Rebel: a person who rises in opposition or armed resistance against an established government or ruler. A person – Shelby Esparza (yours truly) Who rises in opposition – plans to break the system Against an established government or ruler – of a stereotypical teenager