It’s the last semester of high school and I still have yet to learn how to establish my place in this world.

I am 17 and I would say that I have years of experience following the rules that my parents and teachers have established; as students, to follow, listen to what the adults have to say about our world, and discredit my own thoughts and opinions when it comes to the “real world.”

Here’s the thing. Since I am almost a legal adult, I am certain that the term “legal adult’ won’t change the fact that I can’t express myself in front of adults. I have heard that teenagers can be looked down on because we are not mature, we don’t own a house and we don’t have an “actual” job.

As a teenager, we don’t have the thinking process that will help us when we are on our own. We don’t know any better, so we have to listen to our elders.

I believe that our community, especially in schools, should stop and listen to the ideas that some of us have. Teenagers in schools are a point of their lives where they can be creative and create themselves. By expressing themselves, they can find their voice and be heard. Whether it’s in a discussion group or on a piece of paper.

I don’t believe that we should follow the rules and wait to be recognized by our hand in the air, instead of entering into a more natural dialogue like adults do in conversation. I don’t believe that we should have to stop talking when a teacher doesn’t like what’s been said and to be told that teenagers don’t know anything when it comes to real-world issues.

I have heard from the media and my own parents that this upcoming generation of teenagers represents an age of new challenges, particularly economic and social. Teenagers today, will be the future consumers, provide economic growth and will embrace diversity.
If Generation X and Millennials don’t step up and speak up, it will be on us, Generation W, to demonstrate a sense of what this world will soon be… or could be.