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“THESE YEARS ARE THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE!”

WHAT’S A STAFF EDITORIAL?

Editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board and do not nessesarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large.

The Editorial Board: Madeline Sisk, Alanna Murphy, Ellie Christie, Caroline Higley, Jack Seigerman, Anna Schmiedicke and Lauren Shang.

By Editorial Board

One thing every teenager hears at least once: “these are the best years of your lives!” So we should enjoy them, right?

Unfortunately, teens across the world have a pretty grim future ahead of them if that’s true. These years are actually really challenging for us.

Every day, we face an endless onslaught of challenges the world throws our way: COVID, war, school shootings, climate change and so many more awful things that teens have to worry about before we even graduate high school.

Sure, most of us don’t have to pay for a home or take care of children or work 40 hours a week, but that doesn’t mean our struggles aren’t valid and difficult.

Social media amplifies these struggles by creating unattainable standards and peer pressure that our young minds are not always developed enough to cope with.

The Social Dilemma, a 2020 Netflix docudrama, explores how AI computers’ only goal is to have people continue swiping on their phones. How can we even begin to combat a constantly developing AI with the sole purpose of keeping us online when we aren’t even fully developed humans? We’re fallible where the machine is not, and that’s a losing battle.

How are we supposed to win?

According to the CDC, suicide rates among people ages 10-24 have increased almost 50% from 2007-2009 to 2016-2018.

Everyone deserves to attend a school that’s a safe place to learn, grow and be yourself, but for many young people, it can feel like it only judges their worth based on grades, money, looks and popularity. High school can feel can feel superficial. We spend so much time trying to measure up to others that we rarely have the energy to do anything else.

And that’s just high school. College is difficult to get into and even more expensive to attend, with average tuition costs ranging from ten to forty thousand dollars for just one year. We can’t exactly be blamed for feeling a little bit hopeless now and again.

But rather than wallowing in our self pity, let’s not forget that we don’t have to feel like that all the time. We can find hope in our opportunities, because we actually do have some pretty cool ones. Our generation has consistently fought for freedom and current issues more than any other. We report problems, and we fight for what’s right. We have a plethora of music, content and access to people at our fingertips. There’s a near infinite source of information thanks to the internet, so let’s use it.

Still, we need more empathy and understanding from the world around us about our current situation. Teenagers who are anxious or depressed about their futures are often treated as something that needs to be fixed, but sometimes they don’t need help. They just need someone to say that what they’re going through is difficult, and it’s okay to be scared.

So often, we find ourselves being pushed to model our predecessors, and it’s damaging. Let our generation and future ones grow into ourselves healthily. We need love, support and compassion — not doubts and expectations.

Although we’re afraid, we can find ways to enjoy life and keep going. The future is scary, but we’re going to be okay. It’s not that these are the best years, it’s that you can make the best out of them.

CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS:

The Lodge strives for accuracy in all articles. However, mistakes are sometimes made. When this happens, you will see corrections here.