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An open mind equals new possibilities for students

Freedom is a word teenagers use for summer: no more worrying about upcoming tests, extracurriculars, or keeping your room spotless.

Freedom is a word teenagers would describe for summer; where there is no more worrying about upcoming tests, extracurriculars, or keeping your room spotless. So you can throw away your daily planner, and just relax.

But be careful that you aren’t slacking off too much, sitting around and doing nothing because all of your friends are off traveling or someplace else for the summer, keep yourself busy.

One of the main issues with youth today is lack of exercise accompanied with too much technology. On a bright sunny day, if a teenager chooses Facebook or Tumblr over going outside, no ‘reason’ can justify their choice.

Laying on the couch all day and watch TV instead of going swimming or merely going for a walk, these are the problems that come to mind when most adults thinks of the majority of modern youth. That they would rather lay around doing nothing, eating, and leaving their messes behind for their parents to clean up.

Because teens are portrayed as this throughout the media, it also leaves a bad image for those teens who have ‘cleaned up their act.’

There are many teenagers that stand for things other than technology, food, and sleep. They want something good to come out of their lives even in their early teen years. They do what’s right, get good grades, impress adults with their knowledge on difficult and tricky subjects, and set high standards.

But once this is done, the pressure is then put on the lazy or laid-back teenagers. Their parents then put the pressure on them to do what’s right, get good grades, and be the intellectual, mature young adults they know their children can be. But this can be difficult for them. Not impossible (which they believe it is), but they just have to try harder then they have been.

Athletics can play a very important roll in a student’s life. They are available to almost everyone, and yet, it is rarely taken advantage of.

Some teens join just so that they can meet cute girls or guys that are from out of town, but quickly realize that being on a sports team is not a free ride.

Everything is a team effort. Your advantages are the teams advantages, and as for your weaknesses, the team works with you so that they no longer exists.

Through your whole high school career of being on a sports team, whether it’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, or your hockey team; it’s no longer just a team, it’s a family. But what is really special, is seeing just a group of individual teenagers in their eighth grade year, form into a team over the years to follow. They aren’t just your teammates, they’re your friends.

Not to mention, that being on a team keeps you physically fit; as for sitting on a couch, doesn’t. Getting out more also improves the relationship you have with your parents. N

ow I’m not saying that you should be gone ninety per cent of the time. But what I am saying is that with getting out more, you aren’t just sitting around creating messes and eating all the time.

It’s been proven that when you have nothing to do, and you get bored, your mind tends to wander to food, and how hungry you are; even if you just ate twenty minutes ago.

Being active doesn’t necessarily mean sports. It simply means that you aren’t sitting around and letting the world move on without you.

I mean, look at the place we live in! We are surrounded by luscious green forests, lakes hidden in the pockets and the valleys that are made up by our local mountain range. There are so many things that you could be doing; you just have to open your eyes and your mind to new possibilities. There are so many things at the tips of our fingers.

Being afraid won’t help anybody. Fear is just something waiting in our subconscious mind, trying to control our feelings and our emotions; and often too many times we let it control us.

I’m not saying go skydiving right away because you have a fear of heights. Work on it a little bit at a time. Don’t let fear hold you back. There are so many incredible things we are capable of accomplishing, you simply can’t let anything like laziness or fear get in your way.