How to Make a Teenager Cry

How to make a teenager cry
is not a difficult task.
Just pile tons of work on them,
and don't forget to ask,

"Are you doing enough?
Are you wasting your time?
Maybe try a new sport, 
You are in your prime."

Give them a lonely TV character,
One to whom they can relate.
Like Dustin in Stranger Things
when he couldn't get a date.

Make them enraged, issue on issue,
then turn them into a scapegoat.
And when they try to protest their rights,
remind them that they can't yet vote.

Watch their relationships fall apart
As young lovers so often do.
And scream in their face 'cause you're smarter than them,
"You're sixteen; it can't have been true!"

Make them ask to use the restroom
and stand to say the pledge,
Then ask what they'd like to do with their life;
Constantly put them on edge.

"These are the best years of your life!"
You cry, retelling your stories of fun.
And when they try to go out with friends,
tell them to, "sit back down, son!"

Remind them that A is the only option
God forbid a B marks their card.
Because there goes the laptop, the earbuds, the phone,
It isn't like school is, like, hard.


Hope you enjoyed this silly little poem. Disclaimer: I am by no means a poet and had to use multiple rhyming sites to create this. 
Last week I went to the March For Our Lives down in D.C. I had a sign that said "We should be scared of GRADES not GUNS," and I was reminded of how much students have to worry about at school. Not only to they have grades and homework to keep up with, they're also expected to participate in near every extracurricular, AND have an active social life, AND be well-versed on the issues, but, of course, they have no say quite yet. And how so often their problems are minimized because they're still young.