#maybe melodramatic

[gayangstwasoldin2010]

[chicken-fingers]

Being young is not a crime, so why do I feel imprisoned by that damn number?

I’m 17 years old, a senior in high school, and am currently in the throes of planning my entire future with college apps and choosing a major, etc. Every single decision I make effects my future. Every essay I write, every test I take, every fucking tweet I send impacts my life. 

Legally, I'm an adult in my state. I can live alone. I can leave school. I can enter the work force and fully be a member of society.

I’ve learned 17 years worth of lessons, and while that may not sound like a lot to someone decades older, it doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of the world around me, especially with growing up with the internet. I know more about important issues, have been exposed to more diversity than people twice my age, so how dare they take my word as less?

Yeah, I am young. Of course I know that I don’t know everything. But don’t for one second think that my age has anything to do with my intelligence, my abilities, my passions. I'm the same fucking age as Malala Yousafzai, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize. 

I’m old enough to know that, yeah, in a few years I’ll probably have different opinions than those I have today, but isn't that how it always is? I’m also old enough to know that those opinions will still reflect who I am as a person, and my generation has the right to evolve and grow away from our parent's, just as they did before us. Times change, that's just how it goes. My views are no less correct just because my environment has forced me to become someone different then those older.   

They expect us to act like adults, but God forbid they treat us like ones. We're the future, but cant be deigned worthy of any respect. 

And I'm tired of it.