I am a grade ten student in Vancouver B.C. and, like a lot of people my age, I have fair grades. You know the cycle, when one grade goes up another goes down. Well, at the beginning of this year I told myself that I would achieve my ultimate goal, to be on the honor roll, just so I could show my father that I am not the bad person he makes me out to be. I started the year off excellently; I was getting no lower than a C in all my classes, which is way better than my average. Then, when midterms came out, I was so excited that I rushed home to show my mom.

Going from an F to a B in Math was a major accomplishment, well ~ to me at least. Anyway, when I arrived home that day I handed the midterm to my mom straight away. Hoping to be congratulated in the least, I stood there smiling, as she looked it over. To my surprise, all she did was berate me on whether or not I skipped classes and how my grades weren't good enough. That's what brought me back down to what I was before, an F student. Now, everyday, I hate going home for fear of disappointing my parents because no matter how hard I try I will never be an A student like they wish me to be.

It puts a lot of strain on us teens because we want to impress our parents, but every time we seem to drown in failure. Therefore, we shut ourselves behind the closed doors of our room ignoring life by listening to loud music. That is our biggest downfall because after that door is closed, it sometimes refuses to open and we are stuck in a world of lies and deception.

I believe that if parents stopped pressuring us, to the point that we experiment with such things as drugs, we will do better. WE would be proud of ourselves instead of hassling ourselves to do better to impress our parents, we can do better for ourselves. My parents, though I tell them time and time again, refuse to stop pressuring me and with peer pressure it sometimes becomes too much to handle.

If parents laid off a little I think that they would see an extensive amount of achievement in their children's school work, and home environment. It leaves the air clear because without the fighting that school pressures bring to the household, there would be a lot more time to enjoy being a teenager. We could have fun being a teenager without stressing over studying for a test that is weeks away.

I feel that if our parents encouraged us a little, it would give us more satisfaction and delight in learning. We would not have to hide behind our music and closed doors; we would be able to express our thoughts without worrying about being wrong. If parents truly mean to encourage us, then I think they should do so and stop berating us like criminals. Start telling us how proud we make you and that we should do the best that we can do, not what they want us to do.