Back when I was a teenager I used to watch Daria. It was this animated series that was done by the same guy who did Beavis and Butthead and Family Guy, Mike Judge. It's about this gothy, depressed, cynical, bookish, condesending, arrogant, insecure and somewhat stuck up girl name Daria. It's really not her fault that she's such an unpleasant character. It's more that she is both somewhat introverted and too smart to fit in at average grade public school.
Now I'm a bit older than the target audience. However my Signficant Other, who also used to be a huge fan, much more so than I, so much so that it was practically her favorite tv show of all time, wanted to rent it from netflix. So we rented it. We watched about 1/2 hour and turned it off? Why? I found myself sympathizing with Daria's parents and thinking that Daria was just a dumb teenager who was obsessed with dumb teenager issues that all I could do was just smirk at what Daria felt real distress about. Teenagers! Let me give you a list of things that will not matter to you once you grow up.
1. Why are the cool kids so popular? They are all so stupid and the only thing they do is just act mean to me the smart kid and pretend like they are so much better than everbody else.
RELAX! You'll never see the cool kids again once you get out of high school. Once you get to college you'll find your little niche being a scientist or whatever and you'll never have to talk to these people again. Besides, when you get out of high school there's only one thing that really divides people up and that's money. You'll either end up poor and in public housing which is like high school but far worse and more dangerous. You'll end up middle class where most people are friendly but will ignore you for the most part unless you try REALLY hard to maintain friendships. Or you'll end up rich and all your rich friends, who are likely to be somewhat intelligent, will be happy that you're around so they don't have to hang out with the lower classes.
2. Oh my god! I am so BORED!
RELAX! Your parents are lazy and paranoid. Too lazy to find fun stuff for you to do. To paranoid to let you out of the house without adult supervision. When you move out of your parents house and are past the age of consent there will be suddenly far more entertainment and trouble to get into then you'll know what to do with. The teen years are a religion in American culture where the culture's primary focus is to mold you into an upstanding citizen by indoctrinating you in public school and attempting to keep you focused and away from any and all kinds of corruption. Suddenly, when you're 18 all that changes and you can get into all kinds of trouble. When you're in high school don't worry about being too popular, or to bored, there's nothing you can do about it that you won't regret later, just try hard to find your passion and what you like so you can have a direction to go in and not waste a good part of your life spinning your wheels. As chef from South Park says, there's a time and place for everything and it's called college.
3. I don't fit in! I don't like anybody at school. I'm weird! Boo Hoo!
RELAX! This is related to #1. High school is the last time you'll have to spend more than a short amount of time with people you have absolutely nothing in common with. If you go to a small school this problem is often magnified because if you are a little odd. As in you'd probably get along with less than 5% of the population. This means that you are going to have trouble finding people you naturally get along with. At a small school this means you will have to find that 5% and that 5% is likely to be in the bottom 50% of quality people which means you'll have to hang out with really pathetic people. This happened to me in high school and it was awful. I had to hange out with some really pathetic people who I wouldn't spend two minutes with nowaday's. Going to a larger school usually helps just because the laws of probability even things out.
4. The world doesn't make any sense! Why is Brittany Spears so popular when her songs are sooo lame!
When you get older than 18 and are allowed to leave your house and explore the real world outside of the confines of your basic cable subscription you'll find that there's a lot of culture out there that caters to each and every taste. It may take a while but eventually you'll find the culture you really like, seek it out and become comfortable with it and then start ignoring everything else. You'll even stop watching MTV completely in your early 20s.
5. I get all these crazy mood swings, I get depressed, I get paranoid, I cry for no reason. Did my parents do this to me?
If someone is abusing you currently, you need to deal with it if you can. I'm not going to address how to do that here. If however, after you move out of your parents house and you're living on your own or with reasonable roommates and you're still a wreck then you need to see a shrink and get some medication. I have seen too many very intelligent friends and relatives lives either totally wrecked or limited by their lousy brain chemistry. Whether it be Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Severe Depression, or Manic Depression or another mental illness , or just long lasting depression or anxiety for no reason other than one you had to make up to convince yourself you weren't crazy. If your brain chemistry is broken, the first step is to admit it to yourself and get treatment, usually with drugs. There's a limit to how much Freud can do. I've seen a couple examples out there where the best thing that people did for themselves, that totally turned their lives around was fixing their brain chemistry. Go read Prozac Nation if you don't believe me. I'm not saying medication is the answer for everyone, but from what I've seen and read it is my opinion that psychiatric medicine prescribed by a doctor can fix all sorts of mental health issues that there's no way even some of the smartest people could get themselves out of by thoughts alone.
Finally, if you are in high school and not having any fun, SKIP OR SWITCH YOUR HIGH SCHOOL, or get your GED and just go to college. If you go to college early, you'll get a few years of your life back, assuming you finish college on a normal schedule, to do with as you please in your early 20s when you are still young and beautiful.
I went to a small tough high school, had no friends, was depressed all the time, and stressed out beyond belief. I then went to an easy high school. When I went to the easy high school I had a lot of fun, got straight As, and was baby sat for 2 years and made some great friends.
Lastly, I wish I could send this entry to myself as a freshman in high school.
