Teenagers scare the living shit out of me (old)

These are not the best days of our lives, they are the hardest.
That alone should give us all some hope...that even though these years are, for lack of a better word, shitty, it can only get better.

But right now we're too old to hide, yet there's nowhere to run.
We're told to enjoy these years, "you're only young once-ya know", but we are also told to take care of our ocean of responsibilites. And to balance both is a skill we have yet to fully grasp.
We're told not to give in to peer pressure, but that 'pressure is never clearly defined.
Is the pressure in the drugs, the sexuality, the alcohol?
Is the pressure not to do your homework, to DO your homework?
Is the pressure to speak what you think, or is it to just listen?
Is the pressure to beleive in one-or many, or to deny all belief?
Is the pressure to be skinny, to be fat, to be athletic, to be artistic?
Is the pressure to be happy, to love, to be sad, to take pills, to use a knife?
Is the pressure to deal with you're pain, to laugh it away, to hide it, to slice it away?
Is the pressure to be real, or to just accept that we're dying. Always.?
-Define it for us, then maybe we'll listen.
We're forced into a pool of sexuality. Where the blood runs for the girls who are "smart", and doesn't for the girls who are "irresponsible". Where everyone at some point, feels alone-then rushed to love. Where rules are broken when girls kiss boys, girls kiss girls, boys kiss boys, and boys kiss girls. Where heart-fluttering spin the bottle is out, and hardcore making out is in. Sex happens here. Sex happens now. Too early. Too late. Everyone's onfused and answers are not even in existence.
Right now we sometimes can't find reasons to follow the rules adults set, yet we're still forced to follow them.
Rebellion breaks out, but if caught we're broken down.
We're reminded, over and over and over, about college and that it's all we must focus on, for that is our future.
We're forced to put our health, our sanity on the backburner while school takes over. We often get more pressure from our teachers than our peers. But both combined...is relentless.
Days pass in minutes, and half of us wants to slow down while the other half wants to skip everything, for this is way too difficult to fathom. For anyone to fathom.
We say fuck because we can, and because our parents don't want us to.
Our leashes are long, but we're still tied up.
We can make it to the edge, but can't jump over. We can't leap into a different world and try to fly...even though that's all we want to do.

“High school, those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.”
-Little Miss Sunshine