I Get By with A Little Help from My Friends

There are 36 students in my AP Language & Composition class, and usually we don't all get to talk at once. Today it was a roller coaster. We went through many topics regarding Gatsby, our Big Questions, depression/anxiety, and even abortion.

• Even though we, as teenagers, don't tend to enjoy talking about what we're feeling or how we're doing, I really (really) enjoyed how some of us got to talk about our problems and be able to have people to communicate with who wouldn't judge us. As horrible as it sounds, others are probably going through those problems too.
• I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who felt the pressure that school and teachers have on the students. We're secretly taught that everything is about grades, about passing or failing, and that our lives depend on competition to see who can do better. Students are genuinely stressed and exhausted because of school and it gets so bad to the point that we start developing illnesses like anxiety and depression because we're all suffering so bad if you look past all those straight A's.
• We somehow ended up diving into what we think about abortion, and everything really just went down to "your body, your choice." I really admired how everyone expressed their opinions with regards to anyone else's, it just went to show that even through such sensitive topics like that we can be somehow respectful. I still think about how someone said that it isn't even about supporting pro-abortion, it's about supporting pro-choice and respecting the choices that people make with their own bodies. That's all it really is.