High school - it's a breeding ground for every type of mental issue you could think of. I'm fifteen years old, and like every other human being within 4 years of my age I'm surrounded in the most disgusting peak of life: change. I think the first thing all of us have to face is that the world, at the moment, is severely messed up in most ways. We've got country leaders with their fingers shaking at the button to launch the nuclear warhead, being the power-hungry people that they are. The United States has a war going on in Iraq, which (in my opinion) is not working out for the best. And the term "politically incorrect" has made most of America so afraid to say two words that they become void. All of this tied together is making a hell hole in many ways, but it seems not to take much affect on one particular group of people; the most dramatically inclined group of people on earth, teenagers. People can argue against what I've just stated all they want. That high school kids are very hurt by these things, and I'm sure there are a select few, but how many times have you (if you're of age) walked through the halls of your high school and overheard a serious discussion about communism in Cuba, or something of that sort? I'd presume never. I don't mean to say that teenagers are unfeeling blank pages in the book of life, but they have issues of their own. I've decided to write this just to dilute the main view that most teenagers are just "stupid kids". I've noticed that in adulthood, most people forget what it was like in high school; what they were like in high school. Kids in high school aren't just lazy or "slackers" for no apparent reason. There are those who are just lazy slackers, but for the most part there is reason behind it. In your teenage years, things are shaky. The three main things at this point in life are friends, family, and, most importantly, yourself. It's the part of life where, as I'd said in the beginning, things are changing dramatically. Family members are coming and going. Parents may be divorcing, Grandparents may be growing too old for your liking, and so on. As for friends, they're changing. People grow and as they grow they face the same things as you, but maybe they take it differently. Some have to face things at a faster pace than others and don't know how to face it, leading down various troubling roads, including suicide and depression. Others just ignore their problems and become the poppy kid that always has a smile on his/her face; the kid you don't know, but did before. And then there are always the kids who don't know themselves at all, as it seems, and feel as though they have to change to save themselves, when they're really just fine as they are. And lastly, most importantly, you. You are changing more than you ever will, physically, mentally, and emotionally. You're looked at by all sides of society as that immature teenager who probably smokes the pot because he/she is confused. Aside from the constant blow-offs from your peers because you must be immature (it's now part of your DNA), your friends are changing as is your family, like I'd mentioned earlier. All of this at once might lead to some bad decisions or confusion. Perhaps your grades will face a slow decline; your homework isn't turned in on time; you didn't finish that project. So now how's life looking? You have bad grades, messy friendships, thinning family ties, etc. but some how you'll come out okay. You'll grow up and realize life sucks, get a helmet. Maybe you'll go to college, get your degree, get a job and live the average life of an adult: still scared of the world, but too busy to deal with it; you have deadlines. So what was this whole article for? It was for the kid to read and say "I know that already", and for the adult to read and see that they still might have some growing up to do themselves. Maybe change their point-of-view on the slacker teenager who probably smokes the pot.