Walking through the school halls five days a week, head down, air pods as loud as you can so you don’t hear the whispers. Trying to get to class right away so you’re not walking in the hall where you feel uncomfortable.

Even in class, teachers judge you.

Your head is down: “Get up; you should have slept last night.”

Spacing out: “Pay attention because I won’t answer your questions after I teach this.”

But what if we couldn’t sleep last night or what if we can’t stop thinking about things some of these things are medical issues and some are mental health issues, but they don’t ask to know.

Being at home in bed in your own space where you don’t have to ask to use the bathroom or feel unwelcomed or even try to block people out because what some people don’t realize words do hurt. You know we come to school to learn but while we are learning about things, who is helping us learn how to feel comfortable at school or happy at school?

Not everyone feels like this and not everyone is like this, but school is an ongoing dredging thing that we HAVE to go through for 12 years because if not “you will have a low-paying job” as they say.

I know school has many benefits. I just disagree with how they push our mental health out of the way.