Steamboat Pilot & Today

As my high school grade Progress (or lack thereof) Reports were waved in my face, I realized how hurtful the sixth letter of the alphabet is on a transcript. Especially when it sums up how you're doing in three classes.

It took a while to sink in, but it finally hit me like a ton of bricks: I was FAILING three classes. In order to see how I had made the fall from an A and B student to an "I'm going to work at a gas station for the rest of my life" student, you must first understand one of the most important things in high school: Teenage Drama.

Drama can take many forms, from attempting to be accepted by your peers to getting over an egotistical jerk with the help of multiple ice cream sandwiches. Its presence in high school is constant. Who cares about objective functions when you can learn that so-and-so is dating so-and-so? The reason many even come to school is the social aspect of it; high school is all about drama. Silly me, thinking school was supposed to be about learning.

Drama plays a huge role in teenagers' lives. We hang out with people we know are brats; we date people we know are no good; and we talk on the phone instead of doing our American Studies projects. It is almost like we want The OC/soap-opera lifestyle; we're certainly setting ourselves up for it.

Nobody wants to be bored, so we seek entertainment. It takes a lot less work to be entertained by gossip than schoolwork, so we settle for the easier, lazier choice. If we simply try to be engaged in our learning, we can actually enjoy learning.

The effects of getting too caught up in the drama game can be quite extreme. Sometimes the emotional roller coaster of teen-hood leads to trying to escape the continual ups and downs. Drugs. Alcohol.

All that is required to escape this world of extremes is to not become obsessed with the drama. Don't let your life revolve around it. The consequences are too severe.

Forget Teen Drama. Achieve Dreams. All it takes is a little more focus, and a little less drama.