High school holds some of the best years of a person’s life. We are young! We are the youth of America! There are so many opportunities ahead of us that we can pursue with hard work and ambition on our side. Those of us who work hard, will without a doubt go the furthest. How can a student not go far in life with advice like that?

So I enroll the most challenging classes and study hard to ensure my abilities to attend the most prestigious schools, and so I can be accepted to my school of choice. With hard work, any dream is attainable. And I do get into my top school on my list! Thank God I took advantage of the rigorous classes in high school. Thank God I worked so diligently to earn the best grades. A simple payment of tens of thousands of dollars each year for at least the next four years will secure my future.

Easy enough! Pay to get paid is the new motto. It’s the new mindset. Hard work is now secondary to finding ways to fund a future. If your parents make a respectable working middle class living, they surely can not pay for their child’s full cost of attendance to a university- especially if they have multiple children. There is a solution, however! Student loans! Begin your working life in interest-collecting debt, but at least you got an education that will probably assure you a job that you like!

Students need to appreciate these carefree years while we have them. Why should students stress? We don’t have to pay bills in many cases; we don’t have to worry about “adult things.” We’re just kids. We are told the slew of demanding classes we stay up all night studying and doing work for- many of which have no relevance to our future careers- are so much easier than an actual profession. Because teachers, counselors, and parents all know how difficult being a student is nowadays- even though the rigor of classes has proven to have increased tremendously since the adults instructing us have been in school.

So teachers, pile on the pointless work! We have nothing better to do with our limited “carefree” years. Colleges, charge us more for school! We are just kids; our middle-class parents will definitely foot the $80,000 bill. Wow, I sure am excited for the future.