Personal Reflective Essay
Being a teenager in today's society is hard. The pressure surrounding the upcoming exams - from both parents and teachers - is stressful to say the least. People close to you change - and not necessarily for the better. Peer pressure gradually becomes a bigger deal. We are supposed to be young adults, yet get treated like children. I feel that some people have the mental age of a five year old, yet others act far older than their years. Society often labels us depending on what we wear or what we like. We have the pressure to look a certain way, and the expectation to dress like the people in magazines. Relationships come to the fore too. The joys of being a teenager - or so I'm told.
Exams. If you ask anyone in education right now what on their mind, the answer will be exams. With only a couple of months till they begin everything is starting to get slightly hectic. We're all panicking because we don't understand anything, and the occasional outburst from your teacher telling you that "you are going to fail if you don't buck up your ideas", isn't really that helpful to be honest. The new exams being made up on the spot, or so it feels, isn't exactly reassuring either. Over the past few years I have discovered that I'm someone who needs structure. I need a specific road that will lead me to the end goal, or a plan that has been meticulously planned. And with very few teachers giving me a straight answer when asked about the exams, you could say I'm starting to get a bit panicky. I also feel that some teachers forget you do other subjects *cough* maths *cough*. As important as that subject is, I do have other homework slightly more important than a page of a worksheet!
As you can probably tell I have some strong feelings about these changes, in addition to everything else that goes on inside my head. I'm not normally an emotional person, but this year I have discovered emotions I've never felt before. I discovered over the past couple of months that people around me are changing. Someone that used to be a very close friend is drifting from my group. It's been building up over the past few weeks and months, with the occasional snap at someone, or getting up and storming off. With eight girls in a group that tends to happen now and again. But now I feel that this happening too regularly and I don't like it. I spoke to my mum, as we are quite close and she told me to keep fighting for the friendship that we used to have. But, I don't actually think I want to fight for it anymore. I'm tired and fed up of the nights I spent worrying about this individual, thinking I've done.
-Nivedita pal