Pressure Perfect
By A Young Woman Named Natalie
Don’t get shafted,
Look your best,
Do well on your every test.
Must get laid,
Choose abstinence,
Don't forget your common sense.
Go get married,
Don’t divorce,
Even under your spouse's force.
Be very happy,
Have a child,
Don't live life carefree and wild.
Go to church,
Go to school,
Follow every social rule.
Feel the pressure,
Start to crack,
Die of tragic heart attack.
I came across this poem on an online art community of which I am a member. I think it reflects just how much pressure is on the middle and lower class population of American teens to live up to the "American Dream." Go to college, don't have sex, get married, worship Jesus...
It occurred to me just how much pressure is on people of my financial status to work their ass off to accomplish anything other than mediocrity. I want to go to a good college, but I wasn't born into money, so what must I do? Work. Work. Work. WORK. Perfect grades, and self-sacrifice. I will not be going to Italy this summer, and yet still have no savings. With nearly everything I do, every step I take, "If you don't do this, you will not go to college," lurks in the back of my mind; a quiet and powerful threat to take away a child's Christmas morning. Even this blog is an attempt to gain means to pay for text books in the future!
It is an epidemic. There are thousands of kids out there that are just like me. Kids with single mothers without bank accounts, top five percent of their class, dreaming in vain of an Ivy League acceptance letter. For even if they were accepted, even if NYU were calling, how would they pay? Scrimp, starve, beg, steal, fail....
Hard to see the silver lining, isn't it?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
There are so many things out there that make it hard to go to College. You might be qualified to go to that school, but it doesn't mean you have the money.
Don't forget those with single parents (or both parents) that might have the bank account- to send one kid to college.
The ideals portrayed in this poem clearly signified ones from a parent or guardian.
It depicts the common struggle of kids in suburbia.
That's the whole idea of the blog. The middle class is drowning!
The Idiot's Guide to Achieving Nirvana: sold in a consumerist metropolis near you.
~Brooke
this is sadly true.
You know I've never had a boyfriend like ever because I've always chose grades over romance. I stay out of trouble and I'd say I've got a good head on my shoulders. I work my butt off just like anyone else trying to get into college who doesn' t have daddy's credit card at their disposal. And you know what sucks? It never seems to be enough. You're right, the middle class is drowning.
~*El Kc*~
So surprised to see you here! How is everything?! And I know, it's tough, but it's good to know we aren't alone. ^.^ At least the middle class misery has company.
The Idiot's Guide to Achieving Nirvana: sold in a consumerist metropolis near you.
~Brooke
I get exactly what you were trying to say. Perfection or even almost perfect can't really take you that far without the bank account to chauffeur it.
Freddy M.
Honestly, It's a shame that people are expected to live up to what we as a society think is perfection. People strive so much for it and lose themselves along the way. We place so much value in what we think we need and not in what we have and can achieve.
-Amanda-