We’re coming up to the last week of school, so therefore this will be my last and final blog. I am so excited to be getting out and having so much more free time on my hands. The only bad part is having to still work. Most days I’m gonna be like really I don’t want to go, but it’ll be better than school. All of these blogs are so time consuming, just out of the fact that I don’t know what to write about. I took 3 English classes this year to try and improve that, but I don’t know if it really helped or not. I don’t have that capability to just add fluff to stuff I have to put actual information in it. I am excited and then on the other hand not ready for my senior year. I want to move on, but then I have also been enjoying my high school throughout the last year. I have learned a lot about people and about different topics, which has helped me grow as a person.  Summer is going to come and go like it was never here and that is going to suck. Throughout writing these blogs I hope that some of you have either been inspired by them or actually liked them because like I said I’m not going to be a novelist or anything when I grow up. Hopefully they have at least been decent and worth reading to some.

Going

Do ever have those times when you don’t really want to do something, but then someone really pushes you to do it? I have those all the time, about every other event at our school I have someone wanting me to go. My first main thing I was kind of wanted to go, but in the end it was my decision was prom. Prom is a big thing to a lot of people, to me it was just a night, and I didn’t really care to go. But I ended up going with a group of my friends, after I and 3 of my other friends got kicked out of our table and found a new one. It all went ok though; I had a good time and would consider going next year, but am still in contemplation. Another thing would be May Fete, which for a good majority of you; you have no idea what I am talking about. May Fete where I live is an event in honor of the outgoing senior girls. This is to basically put forth recognition to them, the underclassmen all dance for them and the teachers have a dance and they do some different things. I again don’t understand the big deal about it, but whatever they want to do is all to themselves. I have a couple of senior girlfriends, one had asked me multiple times to go and I was like “I am not going, because I don’t see the point,” then she looked at me like I know you didn’t just say that, but I did. In the end I ended up going and it was ok either way I could have went without going, but it’s too late I got talked into going. Another thing would be in my FFA Chapter. I get talked into doing tons of different things. One example would be doing a Horticulture CDE. My Ag. teacher/ advisor gets really excited about flowers, so she’s like you need to do this CDE and I’m like I don’t know. I did this and it ended up that I talked some people into doing it. I wasn’t sure that it was going to be fun, but it was and it was a great adventure.  Another thing would be running for a Section office for my chapter. Thought it would be a great idea to do. This one not so much, I was so nervous I went to do my speech,(which I should have went over a lot more) and just went blank I’m like I don’t know what to say and it was bad. So needless to say I did not get a Section office, but its ok there are always other opportunities. All of these different events have made me who I am now and will continue to help with the adventure in my life, making me go further than what I think I can, when people push me to do what they know I can do. So I want to thank all the people out there who have pushed me to do things that I may not want to do, but do anyway. If not for them then I wouldn’t have gotten this far.

Friends

People who have those days that you just get really frustrated and you need someone to talk to, do you have those days? Or the days when you just do not want to do anything? I have those days and you need someone to vent to. When you have these days you need to have friends. Having friends should be something all of you have, the only thing is you want ones that are going to listen to you and treat your problems like their problems and help you vent out those feelings. You know when something doesn’t go the way you wanted it to or something that day just sets off a trigger. Everyone has at least one of those days and they all need people to talk to and help them through this time and make sure you are ok. I have many friends and love that anyone of them would sit and listen to my problem and I know when I have a problem I can text one of them and they would listen to what I had to say. When you have one of these days do not get down on yourself just find someone to talk to find someone to help you. Friends should be a good part of your life and they should always be there for you. Once you have some good friends that are going to be there for you then you are set. Do not let them leave your life otherwise you may not get the chance to have them back. When I was in junior high I had some friends and then when I got to high school I switched to a different group. My first set just was not the right fit for me; they were more into themselves than I wanted to be. So once I got to high school I found a new set of friends that cared about each other than just themselves. They care about being there for each other and helping each other through hard times. Friends should not be taken for granted; you should as well be there for them. You yourself, you have to be a good friend too. Help others out with their problems that are what people look for in a person, someone to be there always and know when you need help through a hard time. When you find friends you do not have to be in just one ‘clique’ you can be in how ever many you want. Be friends with whomever you want. I consider myself to be friends  with many different groups of people, I mean I do not really know if they are close friends, but I would assume that they would still be there for me if I needed to talk to them I know I would be there if they needed me. Like I said find friends and live your life. Yolo. Check back next week for another awesome blog by Deveney.

Jobs

Everyone at some point in their lives has to get a job, most of the time it starts when you are a teenager. When you’re looking for your first job, trying to find something, but then something you like. When I turned sixteen I started looking for a job around where I lived, so there were not very many options. I applied to about everywhere, looking for something, anything, basically to get a car. What teenager does not want a car to go out with friends and have it to drive around. After trying for about 5 months or so, I eventually talked to someone, and got an interview. After that I go the job and am now working every weekend. If you keep trying for a job you will eventually get one, you just have to keep at it apply everywhere, that will help you get one faster. If you have a job you know what I am talking about trying to get one. Also if you have one you know that sometimes it is hard to work with other coworkers and some of the rudely customers, but the customers ‘always right’. When applying for your first job you want to put a lot of your school activities you do and if any school offices. This will boost your resume in order to further your application to help you get the job. You want to boost everything, put as much information on there as you possibly can. Most applications have to be done online, if you do not have internet you will have to find some place that does. When applying I would not just apply at any place, unless you do not care where you work, but some place you would enjoy doing and have fun while doing. Another thing to consider is applying somewhere one of your friend works, when you start it should be easier because if you have a question you can ask them. Or maybe they can help you get the job, give you a good recommendation, only if they actually do their work do you want their recommendation, because if they do not then the employer may think you are also like that. Even though you may not be, you still do not want something bad against you, taking your chances down even more. Once you get the job show that you deserved it. You want to show that they did not hire you for nothing; you do not want to get fired within the first thirty days of working. All I can say is try you’re hardest if you do not get anywhere go talk to a manager of that place tell them that you really need a job. You can say that you have been trying really hard to get one. Maybe that will help you get it and then you are in. That is it for my job advice. You will have to check back next week for more of my blog.

High parental expectation

Everyone at some point in their life deals with this and may not express it and deal with it. All parents have this for their kids they want them to grow up and be and act just like them, but kids do not want that they want to be their own person, make mistakes and fix them the way they know best. Everyone needs this in their life they need to mess up, it is the way of life that is how it works, and will continue you to do this until the end of time. Then you have those other parents who don’t expect anything out of you and think you are not going to become anything in life. You also have those of you who have siblings and you are supposed to live up the same standards they have or to be better than them. For some that is just too much, that can then lead to stress and depression that I wrote about last week. Parents should be supportive of their kids want them to succeed in life, but be who they are and not what someone wants them to be. Everyone is unique in their own way and wants to do their own thing in life. Everyone needs to make mistakes to have their life be theirs. Do your parents expect you to do something, but you don’t want to, but you have to make them happy. Or you want to do this and they don’t approve, because of who they are or were at that age. Then you have parents that play the card, well I did not do that as a kid, so you can’t. You have to remember what century it is and how far this world has evolved over the years. You are allowed to do more these days that kids did not do back then, that’s how it is and parents need to realize that. If you are one of those parents that do not care what happens to your kid then why did you have kids. have kids because you are ready for them, ready to be there when they need you, love them, expect them to be who they are, let them be free. If they make a mistake then guide them through it and make sure they do get through it without anything happening to them.  When you are expected of too much then you just give up stop trying and then you think they are done caring now that they know you do not have it in you, but you do push through all the parental judgment and make your life the way you want it to end up. Express yourself and let others know what you want to do in life and what you want to achieve, don’t let your parents hold you back on your dreams. Continue reading my blogs and seeing what is going on in the teen world. Check back next week.

Depression

Depression is another thing that teens deal with; there are even adults that have to deal with this to. Depression would be hard for anyone to deal with, but it can be prevented. I talked about challenge day last week and I don’t want to say something to someone to make them feel depressed and after that journey everyone should help everyone get through the hard times in life, without someone going into depression. How is depression really defined? Is it when your sad or is it when your down all the time and don’t care what happens, because I’m not really sure what the definition of it would be, but if I can help someone with it then I would love to do that. Depression is something that should be prevented at such a young age, when you think of depression, I would think of an older person in maybe their 40’s or 50’s and not someone who is 15 through 18. A definition of depression would be a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and despondent lack of activity.  This basically means that when you are depressed you are mentally down on yourself and you have no hope for yourself. Everyone should have hope for themselves; everyone has potential in life and was created for some type of goo d in their life. You may not think that but you do have something in life to live for, don’t doubt it, just continue with your life and have someone help you power through when you really need. I’d say depression is a number one factor in suicides and to think that all of that could be prevented with just 2 minutes of your time. Talking and listening, just listening can help someone through a lot. Parents, coming from a teen myself, talk to your kids, all they want to know is that someone cares about them and wants to spend time with them. All you have to do is open up and it will go a long way. Depression should be helped without pills, it should be helped with talking, and talking can help with so many things. pills should not be the first place to go when something happens in your life, think about what they actually do to your body, but if they are desperately need then go ahead, but if not try to avoid taking them for your own good. Depression should be handled like any other illness that someone has. It can be fixed with time and with the right help. Get friends and family and have a big therapy session with everyone and tell them what you’re feeling and just maybe someone can help you with your depression and make your life better for yourself. I haven’t seen depression first hand, but I can only imagine that it can be rough, dealing with it, especially if you are on your own with no help. Check back next week for more blogging.

Challenge day

This week’s blog will be in inspiration of challenge day that we recently had at our high school. Challenge day relates to my topic of writing because of the bullying and everything else we have discussed. Some of you are probably thinking what challenge day is, we had three days with one hundred kids per day, to change the lives of 300 lives and pass it on to everyone else. you go right when you get to school to the gym is where we had ours, they begin with games to loosen the crowd up, and also with DANCING, who does not like dancing and music, music itself is really inspiring to all. With the games they have a sly way of changing it around to where people are getting to know you without you actually talking to a big group of people. After all these games have loosened you up you’ll then go to small families. These will be who you talk to for the day.  The small families consisted of 6 or 7 people, but with a bigger high school they may have been bigger. In these families you share your story; you say things that if they really knew you they’d know this. It gets emotional after a while and you find out how little you actually know about someone. When everyone first heard about this they were like this going to be stupid and I don’t wanna do this. You get maybe two breaks over the whole course of this. Then you have lunch, after lunch we go back to having more emotional talks. Then what happens closer to the end is the line. The line is the most intense part of the day. They have a line and if this has ever happened to you cross the line. When all these people cross the line you start thinking about how wrong you were to judge them, even your friends cross the line and you’re like wow really, and you’re so surprised they are crossing the line. It is so emotional for everyone. Then towards the end you write a letter, then there’s time to read those or to make apologies to anyone in there that you have hurt. They give you a microphone to do this and you’re like do I really want to do this and if not then there’s time after everyone who wanted to share shares to go around and apologize in private to whoever you have hurt. It shows how words really hurt and all that someone needs is someone to listen and care about them, just two minutes is all it takes. I recommend talking to someone that you’ve never talked to before and see if they need someone to listen. All in all it was one of the best days of my schooling that I have truly enjoyed and never thought it would actually be that good. Everyone deserves a second chance a chance to be a kid and have that freedom; everyone deserves some type of love. If you ever need to talk to me even if I don’t know you comment on my blog and we can go from there may be a text or a phone call, I am never too busy to help out someone who needs it.

Teen Pregnancy

Another issue that some teens deal with is teen pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy raised 3 percent by 2006 and I am sure has raised more as the years go on. Kids in this age are getting pregnant younger and younger as the years go on. It will continue at an increasing rate if nothing is done about what is happening with the kids of America now. teens we all know we don’t want our parents involved, but on the other hand a lot of kids need to have their parents involved. When they are not then pregnancies and other things will happen to us. Pregnancy is a rising thing for a lot of teens. Some teens resort to abortion, adoption, and then some choose to keep their kid. When having a baby it puts a lot of stress that I talked about in my earlier blogs. There’s stress, financial stability, and schooling. Who can keep up with all that and not be overworked, especially if you grew up very poor and don’t have any money to raise a baby. Another issue would be the baby’s father if you were the girl in that relationship and it could go the other way if you were the guy you could have no rights to see your kid at all. Having a kid when you are still a kid yourself is her and it should be more widely prevented. Parents need to be in their kids’ lives, helping them with the love and support they need, especially when it comes to “love”. Really what is that when you’re 16 or 17 even 15 year olds, you do not know what it is? to you its every guy or girl your with, you don’t even know the difference, then you have a kid and one of them maybe walks away from the situation instead of accepting it and moving on with a positive attitude about it. Everyone should use some kind of protection, whatever it may be it needs to happen for the next generation. Parents are getting younger and more immature. Teen Moms is a great way of showing that. In one of the episodes, there’s a girl who had twins at the age of 16 and then at the age of 19 with another guy no mind you is having another kid and getting married. She needed to think about the two kids she already had and then figure out what was best for her life and then find someone to spend her life with, considering she’s only 19. Then on another one her mother is raising her kid because she was too young to have one. She has raised him for over 3 years and she needed to grow up and take care of him. If you’re old enough to do it is old enough to take responsibility to take care of YOUR kid no one else’s. Parents be a better communicator with your kid and be there when they need you, not when it’s too late.

Stress

This week I have found that stress is a big part of my life, so I thought let's talk about it. If you have school that by itself is a stressful job, but then some of us have jobs, and then on top of that you have stuff to do at home. All of these are very stressful to do, within a short period of time throughout the days. If you have just school and are in a lot of classes then most of the time you will have homework. With most of the homework you have to use internet in some form of it, so if you do not have internet at your house you have to figure out some way to do all of the work needed and that in itself can be stressful. Teachers do not realize that a good amount of kids do not have the internet at their house, so then they have to work around getting everything done. Then if you have a job you throw that in on top of it and then you have to make work to get around working your job and then your school work. So I have just recently acquired a job and have come to figure out that it is very stressful. You worry about doing something wrong and making a wrong move. It is stressful to know that you are a new person trying to figure out the ropes to a new job, especially being a first time worker. Anyone reading this recently get a job? If so or if you already have one then you can relate to how stressful all of these combined can be. Another thing with a job that could be stressful is making money. Money could be stressful if you need money to get the bare essentials. For some money is needed to get their main products needed, something as little as food to get by. Then you have housework and if any of you have a mom like mine you are always getting told to do something. It does not matter what it is she will find something for you to do. Anybody have parents like that? Some of you may have daily chores that have to be done that day and every day. If so then you have to schedule that in on top of school work because everyone will have some type of school work. Then on top of that if you have a job you have to make time for all three of these within one day. It is hard to get all of this done in one day. I get stressed thinking about having to get all my homework done by the next day, while having to work that same night. Then I get home and have stuff that I have to do; which is therefore making me not go to bed till a later time. All of what I have said may be relatable to all or just a few, but come back next week for more.

Social Media

How many of you have a Facebook, Twitter or a Pinterest account? I'm thinking that a good 90% of you reading this have at least one of these accounts if not two of them. Facebook was created to keep in touch with people as you get older and move away or if you make friends not going to your school. It was not made in order to have cyber-bullying. Most teenagers use it to post what they are doing every second of the day. I do not know if they do not have anything to do or if they just want other people to know it. Then you have people that are friends with someone and then they start posting stuff about them or getting in a fight on Facebook for everyone to see. Facebook could be used for things that are actually going to help someone not put them down. I have a Facebook account, but do not really use it. I'm not a big fan of it, but I will get on there every now in then and see what’s going on; otherwise I do not get on there or post anything. Twitter is another social media site that is used to keep up with friends or you can see what celebs are posting about. Twitter is a good thing to have to keep up on the different celebs that you have. I had to get one of these for school and am now following a couple of different celebs that I enjoy singing or acting, like Rebel Wilson. I check it every now in then, but I’m not on their daily to check up on everything. Then on the other hand some people use it to bash other people. If you are going to bash someone why do it on the internet where everyone can see it. Take it up with them privately to see what is going on, do not try to hurt their feelings where everyone else can see it. Another media site is Pinterest. Pinterest is one of the best social media sites that I know of. You can go on there and find anything from food to crafts to funny jokes. You can pin things that you want to remember to your boards and have different ones for each section. This is nothing like Facebook or Twitter this is more of what I think something informational. Pinterest is a site that you cannot really say rude things, I mean you could find a way, but that is not the point of the site. It is to share information to other people to be able to try or do. All of these websites have different purposes to different people, they are made as a privilege to people and they shouldn’t be abused. Everyday these are used and then abused over and over. On these sites there should be watching on what goes on so this does not happen. Check back for more next week.

Peer Pressure

This my teen issue is going to be on peer pressure. Peer pressure is another big issue that most kids will deal with throughout their schooling and even later on in your career. Peer pressure can come with many different things like with trying drugs and/or alcohol, having sex, being pushed into something you don't want to be popular or just doing it to fit in generally. Being pressured to do drugs is something that could cause harm to your life or get you killed with an overdose. Being pressured to do drugs is something that people lower than you try to do, to also make they feel more confident and are trying to get you with them. Pressure in doing drugs is not worth the risk of life or death and or the loss of brain damage, which also goes with the fact of alcohol. Alcohol is another pressure that many teens struggle with to be in the in crowd. Many go to different parties and do not have the intention of drinking, they just want to go in order to have fun and a good time with their friends, but then you have other people that want you to drink. They are thinking if you drink then you will lose yourself and do anything. That anything could be having sex. Some guys could try getting a girl drunk or the other way around in order to just sleep with them. So alcohol could loss all inhibitions in a person and could also cause for drunk driving. Teenagers could be more likely to take part in drunk driving because they do not want to tell their parents or they want to think their cool because they want to try to act cool. A good amount of children are peer pressured to do many things out of the fact that they could get more popular. Popular people get someone that is not like them to do things that could cause harm and they think would be funny to see. They cause someone to do what they do not want, but something they do in order to be cool. You may not think of yourself like this, but at some point in your life you have tried to be in a crowd you think would be better, but it is not always better on the other side. Just because you think they are better do not believe it until you actually know that they are not lying and playing with your head. People will do some pretty stupid things in order to just fit in with some or any type of crowd, everyone wants to fit in somewhere and belong to something, with that they will try to fit it at any cost. Do not try to fit in, be yourself and except what you are and what you want to become in life. You are worth the fact of having your own mind and not someone else telling you what you should do or be. Check back next week for more teen issues.

Bullying

Bullying is something that people do more ways than one, you have verbal and then physical. 

People will do these things to hurt people and on the other hand boost themselves.Many kids 

around the world experience bullying daily, some even commit suicide in order to relieve them 

from it all. If you're reading this and get bullied have a voice to say something about it, do 

something.I had trouble most of the time in my first school I went to and I had trouble in the 

beginning of high school. I did something to fix what was happening and it mostly got resolved.

Verbal abuse is probably the most common form of bullying there is in school. Most parents

 may not realize this, but its what you say that hurts and that they need to help stop bullying.

 When you get bullied they make you feel like your nothing, they make you fell like your not

 worth going anymore, but you are and you need to persevere to fight the cause and statistics.

 I want to write this and hope that it inspires anyone who reads it to either stop bullying or stand 

up for yourself. They can not take away your voice. If you tell a teacher and nothing is done go 

higher up and see if you get any further there do not give up, you will get somewhere with time.

 Verbal bullying is when all you do is say hurtful things to someone all the time and put them down

 with words and just because your not physically doing anything that does not mean it is not still 

bullying. Do not say anything to anyone if you know you meant it in a hurtful way and knew it

 was going to make them feel bad. What do people get from the fact of putting someone else down?

 They may be getting the same kind of abuse at home and now their only way of transferring that hurt

 is to put it off on someone at school. If you are in this situation take it out on a pillow it can definitely

withstand your anger and if not you can always get a new one you can not get a new person once they

 are gone. Then on the other hand there is physical bullying which is taken out physically someone. This

 does not happen as often as physical bullying, but it still happens and will continue to happen if parents

 in this generation do not step up and put a stoop to it. This could even happen in your own home with

 maybe siblings or with your parents. Do not let these things get you done all you need to do is step up

 for yourself and help others with the same problem. One other thing is, do not bully others and be

 courteous to one another and help who you can out and do not put them down. For more check back

 next week for another blog.

Self-Image

Self-image. When you think of self-image you look at yourself and judge what others thinks about you and not what you feel about yourself. Do you go out and think about people looking at you and wondering they're judging you by the way you look? do you ever feel that if you go out t eat people look at you and judge you even thought they don't know you. I've been in your shoes and I know how this feel. Do you look in the mirror and think your ugly because of the way you look? Look in the mirror and think of this beautiful person you want to become, think about the future and ho you can become the person you want to be. Maybe you don't want to use a mirror because you don't want to look at what you feel isn't pretty. The mirror for some can be a masked judgmental person to them. even for smaller or skinnier people they may feel self conscious to look in the mirror and think about them being to small, people may make comments about you being a stick and that may be hurtful. Then you start to worry that your to small and you start being really conscious about your weight. These things all happen in cycles, everyone everywhere has some flaw they feel with their body. It doesn't even matter what gender you are, everyone has this problem. Don't be afraid to talk to someone, find someone you feel comfortable with telling how you are feeling and let them know about any type of verbal bullying. Now on to another matter, SHOPPING. When going shopping you might think that "I hate shopping" even though you love to shop, but you can't ever find anything that fits right with your body type. No one should have to feel that way, I've done this before and sometimes I still do. When you go shopping take someone that you are comfortable with and that is not judgmental. Just go from store to store and find what you and what is going to fit the way you want. If you want find a friend that has the same problem with shopping and knows what you're going through and find a happy medium you both like. I Love to go clothes shopping, but only when I know  that I don't have to try on a million things on. I literally hate trying on clothes after clothes and when you imagine it you want it to fit and then when you actually put it one your like uh, no. When you go out to eat you just want to get something that sounds good at that time and mixes with the mood your in. Have you ever had people stare at you when you walk into a fast food place. Maybe they look at everyone that walks in or they judge what they don't know. When going out to eat my brother has to have fast food, but then I think I don't ever eat this stuff, but I had to come to drive him. Then they look at you and are thinking she probably eats here all the time. If you like what I have so far check back next week for more writing on Teen Issues.