High school proves challenging; unrelenting

From freshman to senior year, high school presents challenges unforeseen by those in middle school. Although new friendships can be created through the diverse choices for classes, friendships may be easily separated. Student’s workloads are increased with every passing year and expectations rise along with it. Standardized tests see how well students have been able to memorize the information they have been programmed with, but don’t test their actual knowledge. Although high school seems like the epitome of free-time and exploration for young adults, it is actually a toxic time in which our bodies, minds and sanity are altered.
With ever-changing grading scales and social lives, student’s lives come with everyday challenges and expectations. All of the problematic situations in middle school lives are heightened in high school with a growing sense of “maturity”. Students often take their independence too far with the introduction of things like sex and drugs. Being able to drive around encourages young adults to do things that they may keep secret from their parents.
Pressures from society and peers cause people to feel left out, which can lead to a negatively skewed mentality. From this, mental illnesses are often sparked. Teens are the most likely age group to experience things such as social anxiety and depression, which is exceptionally prevalent in females. There is a reason that suicide rates increase as teens fight their way through adolescence and the ever-heightening high school standards and that is because high school is the worst four years of your life.