Being Young

If you're feeling depressed, insecure, and your partner is one of the contributing factors making you feel this way, it's time to move on.

This is a tip to all of the teenagers I know here at my high school and all of my friends who get stuck in unhealthy or unhappy relationships. It's not worth it. Being young doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to date and shouldn't have fun meeting different people and setting standards for what you'd want in a potential mate. But you shouldn't sacrifice your happiness just to be in relationship.

People are in such a rush to settle down, move in together, I just want to enjoy being young which is why I finally broke it off with my boyfriend of about two years. He proposed to me twice and was already talking about having kids and spending the rest of his life with me. It was too much. I never even got to enjoy being young and having fun with him. We always just sat around doing nothing. I never got to be taken out on a real date. He made me feel insecure and unimportant. It took me months to realize that I deserved better.

I believe the high school atmosphere pressures students quite a bit into feeling the need to have partners. It seems like there’s always a dance coming up or something. I have friends who aren’t even going to prom because they don’t have a date. And to be honest, that’s one of the reasons I was delaying breaking up with my boyfriend. I wanted the whole story-book romantic night – looking like a princess, going out to eat, slow dancing. But I’ve realized that I can have just as much fun with a group of friends. You don’t have to have a date to enjoy going to dances at school.

So, I dumped him and I'm surprised by how good I feel. There's this guy who has been taking me out on real dates. Who wants to spend time with me and doesn't treat being around me like a chore. Even my friends have noticed a change in me. People are saying I look a lot happier.

When you’re young, life should be about enjoying being young. It took me a while to figure this out because I was in such a rush to grow up. I hadn’t realized that in rushing to start my own life, I was settling for someone I was incredibly unhappy with and increasingly frustrated with. Now, I feel so much better. I feel free and I finally feel alive.

So if you feel stuck in a relationship that you’re unhappy with, don’t settle. Putting off the breakup for as long as possible will only make it worse. You’re young. Break it off, open your heart and I’m sure someone better will come along.