After teaching the short story, "Through the Tunnel" by Doris Lessing to my sophomores, I recently had my students create belief statements and action steps. Within this assignment, I wanted them to think of where they stood on issues in five areas of their lives: future, morals, relationships, friendships, and family. Many truly struggled with this assignment. I expected them to. But I wanted them to think. I wanted them to think about more than the next five minutes or what they were doing next Friday. I wanted them to take a stand. To feel proud. To feel strong. Afterall, if we don't write down our beliefs and goals, they are just really nice thoughts. And at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to live with ourselves. No one else has to sleep with our conscience but us.
Teenagers get a bad rap for being impulsive, for thinking with emotion and not logic. But honestly, aren't we all guilty of that? The only difference is that as adults, we tend to blame those decisions on our life circumstances, not immaturity. I wanted my students to think about these things, and to be quite honest, it all stems from an awful, horrible, no-good song I heard on the radio awhile back. It pains me to even give credit to the song, but it is simply that bad. The song is called "Habits" by Tove Lo. (I cannot even believe this song gets air time. Seriously.)
The chorus of the song states.
You're gone and I got to stay high
All the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
High all the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
Spend my days locked in a haze
Trying to forget you babe, I fall back down
Gotta stay high all my life to forget I'm missing you
All the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
High all the time to keep you off my mind, ooh ooh
Spend my days locked in a haze
Trying to forget you babe, I fall back down
Gotta stay high all my life to forget I'm missing you
Again, SERIOUSLY??? This song is #5 on iTunes. And we wonder what is wrong with this world? I might add that really, those are the nicest lyrics of the entire song. So why do I bring this up? Because I hope that maybe, just maybe one of my students will think about what they stand for, and rise up, rise against the societal acceptance of drugs and alcohol and laziness. I hope that when they get into situations that cause them to make decisions, they can react with their heads and not with impulse. There is no decision in life that they will face that is better than them. There is no decision in life that they can't work through. They are smart, and they are driven. They need to know that sometimes in life, we just need to put on a good ol' pair of work boots and figure it out. The singer, Tove Lo, she just needs to pull up her big-girl panties and quit making excuses about life in a horrible song. We all have the chance to do great things. As Maya Angelou once said, "I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it." It's all about choices.
That is all.
