A Better Tomorrow | Teen Ink

A Better Tomorrow

March 17, 2009
By italianxbonafide BRONZE, Staten Island, New York
italianxbonafide BRONZE, Staten Island, New York
3 articles 0 photos 3 comments

The teachers always told him that he had a promising future. Everyone thought that he would grow up to be a refined young man. He was the epitome of excellence, but to the kids he was just a nerd. The rest of the kids in his middle school were commonplace compared to him, all clone-copies of one another. He stood out, always looking for ways to enhance his incisive mind. He was the valedictorian of my eighth grade class. As he spoke of the beginning of the rest of our lives, it was clear to everyone that he was without a doubt, a connoisseur of public speaking.


Walking home the other day, I saw him leaning against a battered bus shelter. The same boy who once showed a precocious talent in many classes, such as science and math, now appeared burned out and dull. 'What happened to you?' I asked. He glanced at me, with his eyes blood shot and replied 'Carpe diem,' as he took another drag from his cigarette. I stared at him incredulously, not able to believe how much he had changed. The little boy who I had once known, the boy who had so much potential, handed over his life to peer pressure, drugs, and booze.


This is one of the problems with today's high-school society. Our generation has fallen to drugs, video games, television, and many other electronic devices. People have gotten lazy, always looking for the easy way out. We don't challenge ourselves to think anymore, technology does it for us. Aristotle, Galileo, Bohr, and many other scientists devoted their lives to making discoveries, trying to understand the magic of the universe. These are men who would die to know the simple knowledge of the world that we posses today. Many of the greatest discoveries were made without electronics.

Is there a difference between maturity and intelligence? These are two major factors that play in defining a person, but there is a significant difference. Maturity is the ability to deceifer the difference between right and wrong, and always doing the right thing. Intelligence is something that many of us have, but unfortunately, only some are smart enough to take advantage of it. Others are preoccupied with fitting in, and being accepted by the high school population. Dating, popularity, parties, they're all blinding distractions that aren't salutary on college resumes. I can only hope that teens extricate themselves from such heinous behavior and transmute themselves into a brilliant young adult.

Go out there and challenge yourself. Start thinking with your mind, pursue those old dreams that you had so long ago, get away from technology and become human again.


The author's comments:
I was inspired to write this article after seeing how many teens had succumbed to the pressure of drugs. I realized alot of kids focus on "today" instead of "tomorrow," which in some cases is true because tomorrow isn't always garanteed.. but living your life to the fullest means being all that you can be and striving to accomplish the most that you can in life. When I die, even if I'm not famous, I hope to atleast deliver a message and be remembered for something positive. These teens don't understand how much of their life that they are wasting away to drugs and other various distractions.

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This article has 3 comments.


Football25 said...
on Jan. 21 2014 at 12:22 pm
I think your right ☝️

Garrettw said...
on Jan. 21 2014 at 8:19 am
Your article is a opinion most of us kids do not even do drugs because of pier pressure we do that because of are choice. I'm tired of seeing people that may be a teen or not,say that we fall into pier pressure because if we decide to do drugs or drink is because of are decision

fisherj BRONZE said...
on May. 5 2009 at 6:55 am
fisherj BRONZE, Hickory, North Carolina
4 articles 0 photos 10 comments
To start, I have no intention of glorifying drug use. I do feel a few things need to be mentioned here. To counter your anecdotal evidence, a dozen artists, authors, scientists, and politicians of great renown have been drug users. Music is jam-packed with marijuana and various psychedelic consumers and I'm sure are culturally literate teen can think of a dozen with ease. While this alone does not justify using them yourself, it counters the above story. (If you are interested in further study in this area, simply start throwing words like 'psychedelic' and 'musician' or 'artist' and any other terms to give yourself a decent starting place) Now, for the next note wanting to be remembered needs to be replaced as a generic life goal with something more substantial. This goal is nothing more than the underdeveloped expression of 'angsty teens' who, wishing to see their lives in a more global context, wish to influence life past their own. The problem is, when seen in an even more 'global' context (step on the time frame a few centuries) and all but the most monumental human achievements have faded to oblivion. Life should not be lived for the benefit of succeeding generations to read about. You are not those people. 'Carpe Diem' is thrown around quite often as negative, but if we do not allow ourselves to be carried away on waves of excess, life can be much improved with the indulgences of folly. This can be any of a number of things, drugs comprising only the tiniest minority. Reflect on decisions before you make them, and be sure that you are acting in a way that will support you into the future, but will not promote a stagnant lifestyle. Even the greatest minds in history liked to party.