by Gianella Ghiglino
They say your teen years are the best years of your life. You are young, carefree, and have all the energy in the world. However, they forget to mention all the stress with school, hormones, crushes, and peer pressure. I, however, will say your teen years are for the most part pretty cool but only when you learn how to deal with everything going on. Stress is something we can all tackle and these five ways may help you make life a little easier.
Don’t give into pressure from others
Boys, do not pressure girls into doing anything they don’t want. ‘No’ means No and that is final. Vice versa with the boys, you do not need to prove anything to anyone and if you don’t want to do something, that is okay. Ladies, don’t feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to because if he truly cares about you he will respect your decision.
Avoid drugs at all costs
Say no to drugs, including marijuana and prescription pills. As repetitive as this message may seem, too many of us still ignore it. It doesn’t matter if every pop and rap star smokes marijuana and the fact that it is becoming legal in many states — it alters and fogs your thinking, and often leads to other drug use. If your friends are smoking, and offer you some, just say ‘No I’m good.’ It isn’t rude to decline and if they pressure you to try it just simply say ‘I’m not into it.’ You do need to go into a rant about why it is morally wrong (they are not going to listen to you, trust me): just be calm, cool and say ‘No.’ And then try to leave, because hanging around high people is pretty much just annoying — just like hanging around very drunk people.
Focus on your education
If you find yourself in the situation in which your friends want you to ditch school with them, advise them that your value your education. I am not going to say missing one day of school is going to destroy your chances of get into college, because it won’t. I will say, however, that you should not let your friends interfere with your schoolwork and trying to get the highest grades possible. Real friends want you to succeed and do well, and you have plenty of time to party later. Ask your friends how they are doing in school, show interest in their success and they will do the same. If not, find new friends.
Accept your looks
Looks, looks and more looks. High school is definitely the place where your peers will judge every aspect of your physical appearance. Guess what! Everyone has something they are insecure about. Even the prettiest girls and hottest guys feel pressured to be attractive, and they are often made to feel like their looks are the only thing that validate them. No one is confident every single hour of the day. Embrace your body, acne, crooked teeth, frizzy hair. You will become so beautiful the minute you start believing that you are — it will manifest in a confident attitude which people love. Its okay to have off days but always know you are fire.
Be productive and get stuff DONE
Procrastination leads to stress. It forces you to ignore responsibilities. This is something that will haunt you for the rest of your life if you don’t get a handle on it early. I know it would be so much more fun to go play a sport with your friends, play video games, go shopping, binge on Netflix shows — but if you have homework or other responsibilities, just get them done. Study, exercise, or do your chores first and you will enjoy all your activities more after, without all that stress. When you get the stuff that needs to be done out of the way, you will feel accomplished and it will actually raise your self esteem. The more you do, the better you will feel about yourself. Have a planner, set alarms and get responsibilities done first so that when you’re on that millionth episode on Netflix you wont have to think about your homework that still needs to be done.