English Blog Post - 10 Cheng Zhi Chao

What are your thoughts and feelings about being depression, loneliness, heartbreaks, being different from your peers, and having to put up a front? How do/would you deal with some of these issues.

"One problem shared is another person's day slightly ruined."

Many teens these days have a different attitude than those in the past, or when they were younger. In Primary School, everyone's daily routine was just to listen to hour after hour of lecture by their teachers, looking forward to playing football with friends at the end of the day, and to finish up their homework with an equally heavy sigh at the end of the day. In fact, when I myself was in Primary school, the word "Love" or "Emo" did not even cross my mind nor affect me in the slightest. Most of whom have faced these problems for the first time, do not know how to resolve them and thus keep it to themselves.

This predicament of one being a teenager slowly enters our lives. First, a trickle, then a few drops, and then out of the blue, it just gushes out of the tap and hits us hard in the face. Most teenagers find it hard to manage their lives in the short amount of time that they are given. In secondary school, everyone is under the constant and heavy pressure of homework and relationship issues with friends, or even relationships between those of the opposite sex. Emotions become harder to control, sometimes leading to one feeling lonely and in solitude, or feeling left out or different, or awkward, or maybe just angry about life.

Homework seems to be a very integral part of our school lives. Poor management of it can lead to varying emotional issues. Some just feel that they are getting too much work and have no time to finish them all. Sometimes it's just laziness, sometimes it's the fact that there is much more to do in secondary school than back in primary school. Relationships are also common amongst teens. It's not really uncommon to see youngsters of the opposite sex holding hands in the public. However, getting together is easy, but a break-up can be hard to handle. Many teens, usually girls, always have their portrayal of their "knight in shiny armour", but when their crush leaves them or "dump", as it is commonly recognised, they cannot bear the thought of separation and it takes a toll on their daily life.

How just do these teenagers cope? Although there are positive ways to cope with stress, many teenagers have taken the other alternative. Most of the teenagers who are bound by homework often resort to gaming online to escape the mountains of requirements and deadlines they have to meet. Some of those who are plagued with more serious relationship issues often go into a state of depression or they try to inflict physical pain on themselves, sometimes leading to an inevitable case of suicide of self-mutilation. For those who are not on these extreme ends of the continuum, the victims often isolate themselves and not engage in activities with those who used to be their friends.