It's the big game tonight and you got tickets! Everyone from your school is going to be there, and you're really excited! You get to the game ahead of time so that you can get good spots in the bleachers. You see your lab partner from science walking up the stairs; you call out her name so that you have someone to sit next to…"Susie…Up here Susie!" But all she does is ignore you, and goes and sits by her friends. It's the beginning of the fourth quarter, and you're still sitting by yourself. What you then realize is that you're alone and don't have friends. Melinda Sordino, in the book Speak by: Laurie Halse Anderson, feels the exact same way when she's starting high school. Before high school, Melinda had it all, a huge group of friends that were always there for her, and good grades. But over the summer, everything changed. All of her friends left her and joined different cliques. This way they would go into high school with friends. But Melinda didn't find a clique that fit her, so she started high school alone. Which is a really hard thing to do, because then you have nobody to talk about your problems with, no one to help you with homework. You basically have no one.
During these hard times for teenagers, they tend to make very bad decisions that can be life changing. The suicide rate for teenagers is 10.6 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide, and dies from it. In 2000, committing suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. When people think about committing suicide, there are warning signs before they make the final decision. One main warning sign is that after a stressful event the person experiences, they sometimes tend to pull suicide. For example a failure at school, a breakup with a girlfriend or boyfriend, a death of a family member or loved one, a major or minor conflict in your life, or a divorce. Another warning sign is depression. One sign of depression is starting to fail in school, or bad grades. Melinda Sordino starts to get bad grades and is overall depressed due to major events that have complicated her life. That doesn't mean she is going to pull suicide, but it does show some signs that should have alerted her parents.
Another hard time teenagers have is when they are forced to do something they don't want to do. This can be a considered peer pressure. For example drugs, alcohol, and even being forced to do something with a guy (which can be considered rape). In the last two years, over 787,000 women were raped or sexually assaulted. The sad part about this is there could be even more women, but they can't find the courage to speak up and report the person, or the woman is being threatened and can't report them because they are afraid that they will be raped again. Can you imagine if the number was even higher than 787,000? That's a lot of women in the United States. This connects to the story because at a party one Friday night, Melinda was drinking and was under the influence. She was very confused and wasn’t in control of herself. And she sadly got raped by a senior at her high school. Since she wasn't herself she always assumed that is wasn't rape, but on the inside she always knew it was. Whenever he was around her, she couldn't think. She blacked out and focused on getting out of the area that he was in so she wouldn’t have to have those horrible memories of her past come back into her mind. Rape is a very serious matter, and all teens should be aware of what can happen when you're not in control of yourself, or under the influence.
Overall, high school is a very confusing and complicated time for a teenager. They get caught up in all of the drama, and sometimes can't get out. When they get too deep, they sometimes make decisions that can affect them majorly. It can even mean the difference of life or death. I know that it sounds like it wouldn't ever happen, but it's true. Many teenagers make choices that never would have had to have been chosen if they would have gotten stuck in the drama. If you can stay out of the drama, and the hard times in high school, then you might do fine. But it's extremely hard to avoid. Melinda got caught up in the drama and things happened to her that couldn't have been prevented. Luckily she got out before anything worse happened, but there's always that chance that something could have gone wrong, and she could have been put in a very bad state of confusion.
Art Piece
Your mind gets lost,
In the endless black of space.
Small objects pass you by,
Confusing your train of thought.
Not knowing which way to go,
There is no up or down,
Left or right.
Just a gigantic puzzle,
Waiting to be solved.
But it cant be deciphered,
Because there is no answer,
To an endless amount of nothing.
You try and wrap your mind around,
The incredible objects hovering over you.
The various shapes and colors,
Of these amazing and unique items.
Space is an astonishing and confusing place,
Where you can get lost and not return.
It’s a place that is alluring,
And can't be clarified in words.
Space is….
Everything, and anything you want it to be.
