"She's in love, and the world gets blurry
She makes mistakes, and she's in no hurry to grow up
'Cause grownups, they don't understand her
Well it's a big, big world out there, but she's not scared...
She finds hope in the strangest places
She reads her books, and she knows the faces
Of everyone that ever said she's alone
She knows every word to the saddest songs
And she sings along, though her friends all tell her
That she can't sing...
She's eighteen, much too young
To know what a kiss like that would mean
But her lips, they were no stranger to the touch
And she likes it way too much."
--Mayday Parade, So Far Away

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

"Students Place Less Value on Health"

Well, duh.

I was looking around the Internet and found this site: http://nz.news.yahoo.com/071008/9/1yyd.html. It's a news article about how kids these days don't put enough value on eating right, sleeping enough, or getting exercise.

Okay, adults, here's my question: Where exactly do you propose we find the time to be healthy?

We get up long before the crack of dawn to go to your schools to meet your standards. Then we attend your classes on your time schedule to meet those same darn standards. And then we go to all of our extra-curriculars after school so we can get into your colleges.

When would you like me to eat fruit and vegetables and such, things that require a) refrigeration and b) at least a few minutes of preparation [gotta wash them, minimally]? When would you like me to sleep more? When do you propose I get my exercise in?

Oh, that's right. I'm free from midnight to 4 am each day. Maybe I can squeeze some tae bo in or something.

I don't get the chance to eat healthy--bagels, Pop-Tarts, and cans of sugary drinks are all I know. I eat a cup of applesauce each day, but clearly it's not enough. I don't get enough sleep each night, stressed by the upcoming schoolwork, projects, assignments, quizzes, tests, and college-prep material all you adults are going to throw at me. I only get 45 minutes of exercise each week, and that's because I scheduled it into my time and have refused to surrender it to any other extra-curricular activity.

You're right, I don't value health. Will my health get me into college? Will it get me a job and a career? No, probably not. My weight and body fat percentage will not be the deciding factors on a college application. My hours of sleep per night will not earn me a job.

You complain about us all being fat--how about a few hours each week to let us lose the weight? No, you'd rather give us meaningless assignments and tedious work. It doesn't change your life at all, does it?

Complain when you've given us a chance to prove ourselves. Until then, you have no right.

2 comments:

Ammietia (a girl you once knew) said...

Thank all that is good that someone also understands this! I'm so happy you have written all this, its 100% true. But will adults listen? No.

With us having to do all they want us to do, how can we spend time on eating right when we barely have enough time to breathe? To exercise when we barely have enough time to sleep? We can't really run 3 km while sleeping.

Then they blame it on our poor time management skills. We don't really have time to plan everything out and use all this time we don't have to squash everything into a smaller time slot only to have the extra time filled with more work.

My .02

~Ammietia

Abby said...

Exactly! We don't have enough time to plan out out time to use our time wisely.

How ridiculous is this world going to get??