Stressed Out Drop Out

Intro: The theme of my essay is about dropping out and stress from school. I wanted to write about something that other students could relate to something on a personal level and have it be somewhat entertaining. I’m proud of doing more than the minimum word count and having it not be a formal essay that people wouldn’t want to read. I made this entire essay off of procrastination and now it’s something that connects to the real world. For the next essay, I think I would have the paragraphs be shorter and not a sight for sore eyes. I want something that’s pleasant and easy to read.

September 12. Another ordinary day for me. I was sitting on the MFL, wondering what the day would be like. The train is already crowded, loud, and musty. I didn’t even know who was around me because people kept coming on and off the train. My day couldn’t have started any worse. For a few minutes, I continued to think that, until the english class writing assignment popped in my head. Ugh! Another writing piece. Of course, I don’t know what to write about and would wait until the last minute to do it. Should I write about the assignment itself or my surroundings? This year I wanted to be a changed student, doing my work on time and participate in class. But, it just never happened. Becoming a changed person takes time and can’t be done overnight, that’s one thing I failed to realize. On the first day of school, I thought I was gonna do my work, but my laziness kicked in. “Doors are closing.” The train operator said. I have about 30 more minutes before I get to City Hall and wouldn’t have a chance to write this paper, so what should I write about. When it comes to writing about myself I never know what to do. I think I know myself, but when it comes down to it, I don’t. To others, it probably won’t make sense, but to me it does. You should be able to think about yourself. When someone says to know your limits, you should but limits change every day. Now that a few minutes have passed and the train isn’t as noisy I can finally concentrate. My scene will be about my thoughts!

And that was how I started off my day. Writing a paper in less than 25 minutes trying to make it seem like I put effort into it, but I’ve already gotten to the point in my life where I no longer care about school. I’m ready to drop out of school and become an illegal exotic dancer and become famous or something. I think some people my age are at that stage too. No longer caring about school or the future, just living in the moment for the moment. Of course, I’m still going to continue to do my work because I do want to go to college and get my degree and have a career. Even if I was to stop doing my work, it would show on my report card.

During the last quarter of my freshman year, I had completely given up. Teachers kept assigning work until the last minute and I wasn’t willing to do it. In English class, we had to write an essay that used ethos, pathos, and logos. I did have a few ideas in mind when I started, but none of them were good enough to get a B on so, my English teacher at the time helped me come up with better ideas. The argument that I stuck with was “artists of the hip hop and r&b genre deserves as much respect as artists from others.” At the time, it sounded like a great idea but it wasn’t. I ended up bs-ing the whole thing because there wasn’t enough research and energy put into it. It also reflected on my report card. A grade too embarrassing to mention in an essay that no one is going to read. My mom and advisor were disappointed. I could tell by the tones of their voices and by their facial expressions. Moral of the story: bs anything you want as long as you’re able to face the consequences, unlike me.

Even while writing this essay I was ready to give up and write about anything. It’s something that we do in life, give up and forget or finesse.

High school is supposed to be the best and hardest part of our academic careers but we tend to focus on the difficult parts. It’s not fair to us that we’re forced to go to school and have people say “you’re here to learn not to have fun.” It’s not like we have a choice in the matter. We should have an option. If it was up to me, I would probably show up to school ⅘ days and have a job. It would be nice to say let’s just not go to school today and have fun.

Teachers like to say, I don’t like grading your homework, but continue to give us a lot of work. Here at SLA, we have 5 class periods and most of the teachers give us homework every day and it’s not even something we could do in 10 minutes. The stress and workload can cause students to drop out or become depressed depending on what’s going on in their life. Having this mentality can be a phase, not only for teens but for all students.