ALL teenagers want to be successful in school, and educators want to help teenagers to achieve this success.
Yet school can be a place of torture with exams, peer pressure and other personal problems.
Although some days school is exciting, especially in the times of derby, matric ball and athletics, there is much competition and envy of the popular kids who excel in sports and academics.
Back at home, you can also fall into being a victim. You feel out of control and you feel overpowered, not just by people, but by the fear and doubt as well.
You have ongoing hours of pain, you feel helpless and then you just let go, you give yourself to the abuser. In that moment it is impossible to fight back.
You are scared of what will happen next - will the consequences be of a physical or sexual nature.
You just don’t know.
Then you have verbal abuse, which might just suffocate you. And the worst is when it comes from somebody close to you, you can feel your self-worth sinking into oblivion.
The abuse of drugs and alcohol, with violence, leads to unrelenting pressure in any household, and pressure on those exposed to these abuses.
These pressures lead to more arguments, which in turn just lead to more violence. And the cycle continues, without any end in sight.
We all feel insecure, without confidence. Everybody is human. But then you get bullies, making everything worse. You become a victim to somebody else’s self-doubt.
Your self-confidence is dwindling, hanging by a thread, and you struggle to find the courage to stand up for yourself when there are so many people wanting to pull you down.
In order to achieve at school you need support, understanding and love from your parents.
Parents make the mistake to either put their child on a pedestal or just blatantly underestimate them. Teenagers should be allowed to develop at their own pace and according to their own potential.
School isn’t easy. School, and all that goes with it, is hard. We should take responsibility for our own actions and our own future, and not let anyone stand in our way.
