Being a high school student is tough. What happened to it being the best four years of our lives? I beg to differ. High school is a place where teenagers are being judged about what they wear, who they hang out with, and how smart they really are everyday. Adding to that stress we have schoolwork then homework.

We struggle to keep up with each and every piece of work from each and every class we are taking. It's not as simple as some adults see. We are developing a sense of self. We are put into a world trying to find out who we are and what we want in life. Trying to be the best in class or the best outside of class sometimes clouds what our goal really was in the first place.

Everyone needs to understand that teenagers see everything. We may not address it or confront it but we see everything. We see the problems going on around us, what other people try to hide, we see worst case scenarios and that's what we base our future on. We base it on the what ifs. We feel a certain kind of pain that cannot be explained. So I'm sorry if I need to miss one day of school because I can't handle all the stress that I'm put under everyday for five days a week. I'm sorry if I can't keep my grades up because I fail to ask questions and understand the work.

We are forced to become someone we aren't because that's what school standards give us. They try to mold these perfect students and they tell us it'll help us in the "real world" as if our lives aren't real enough for them. The reason why a lot of teenagers feel like it's time to give up is because no one sees what we have to go through in and out of school. We don't talk about it, we don't show it, we just hide it because no one cares enough to open their eyes and see the truth.

This is the cold hard truth about high school. It's a sink or swim kind of thing. It's hard and it's getting harder every year. So I apologize for wanting a little free time in life. Not everyone can pretend to be fine all the time, sometimes we just need to breathe and get away from everything.