Don’t get stuck in nasty habits that are hard to replace.

And by that, I’m not referring to the typical teenage rebellion stories so cultivated by society, mostly (I suspect) created by adults to flaunt their own superiority in the face of their loss of youth.

No, I am referring to the opposite kind of problem, one not held up as a horror story, or a nice narrative used to denounce a generation. For just as it is possible to care too little about your future, it is also possible to care far too much.

When you start to care too much over the numbers on your transcript, the assinments you must face, it is all too easy to ignore the life you have in front of you. Dashing homework questions in the library and ignoring friends, it’s hard to fully grasp the sacrifice you’re making until you try to reverse the pattern you have locked your life to.

It is dubious whether or not this kind of hard work will even yield higher grades. Kids I know who put the kind of all-or-nothing pressure on themselves for success end up spending more time procrastinating under the pressure they put themselves under, and may overwork projects in ways that increases the quality of the work without actually increasing the mark.

In the process of this overwork, kids/teens/adults, you forget yourself.

You try to fit into the mold of school without thinking of your own goals and dreams, ignoring friends, and, hells, if you’re not going into the academic straight-and-narrow, taking time away from the development of a future career!

Life is full of its propoganda.  But while it’s true teens can be peer-pressured to drink and smoke, let’s not ignore the increased competitiveness of high school students, increasing university rates, and with it, the increase in overworked kids.