My Response to "High School Is the Best Time of Your Life"

I really hate the phrase "High school is the best time of your life, you're going to miss it." You guys are telling us that our life will never get better than it is now. That it will somehow get worse as we get older. And all some of us want to say is "Oh god..... If this is the best time of my life, I'm screwed!!!!"

For some of us, high school is 4 years of testing how far we can go before we break. It's 4 years of being stressed by ridiculous amounts of homework that we don't always understand being shoved in our faces. We are force-fed commands like "Be social!", "Get a lot of sleep!", and "Do volunteer work!" when we don't have any time to do those things.

What message are you sending when the so-called "best part of our lives" are highlighted by nights where we cry ourselves to sleep over unfinished busywork given to "keep us out of trouble"? Where we dread waking up to go to a place where we are judged based on how we dress, how we speak, and who we love? Where we are told by teachers that we need to act like adults and then, in the same breath, told that we are children and have no place criticizing the real adults? What message are you sending when the "best time of our lives" is punctuated by increased depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide rates?

Are you telling me that this is a better time, that I will be happier NOW, than when I get married? When I have my first baby? Are you saying that this crap storm of teenage hormones and angst will be more fun than when I get to hold my first grandchild for the first time?

If it never gets any better than it does now...... Well, what's the real point of graduating? Why not purposely fail all my classes and stay here forever?

Don't get me wrong, I love school. I love learning. I love not paying taxes. But I think I can do better in life than this.