Wow. Some of the stuff said in this thread is pretty shocking to me.

For those of you who are just coasting through, getting the bare minimum needed to pass... do you know what you are setting yourself up for in the future? You are at an advantage now because teachers are so much less willing to fail students and they keep getting pushed through but guess what? When you enter the work force and you attempt to coast through and not pull your weight - you get fired. Listen to me. I am not old, it hasn't been that long since I've been out of high school. But you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of menial jobs if all you ever do is "settle".

As for parents "pressuring" their children... it's only because they want better for their children than what they have. You'll come to realize this - I have and I'm not a mother yet. Your parents don't want you to live from paycheck to paycheck, working yourself into an early grave, working at a job you hate, etc. They want you to happy, but they want to know that you will be okay and taken care of when they aren't around anymore. THAT'S what the pushing is for. Not because they're jerks and don't understand you. The older you get, the more you realize that they actually *DO* understand you more than you think. Your body ages. Your mind does not. Trust me. Please.

You also have to think beyond just yourself. What if you dropped out of high school and/or didn't get a college degree. You fall in love, get married, and have kids. You are lucky enough to find a man whose salary alone could support you and the kids without you having to work. Someone crashes into him on the way to work one day and God forbid, he dies. You are left to raise, support, and provide for a family with NO fallback! Is that fair to your children? OR if that scenario doesn't seem like it fits into your dreams for your future right now, replace the children with your parents. Say something happens to them, your husband is gone, you work at McDonald's and your parents need money. Wouldn't you like to be able to give back to them after all they've done for you?

Give it another 10 years... you guys will start to realize what I'm saying. Believe me. Ten years ago, I was 16 and I rolled my eyes when my parents said that they could relate to me ("No one knows what it's like to be a teenager these days! It's sooooo different from the 60s!" - but guess what? It isn't so much. The fashion changes, but the minds of teenagers don't...). I rolled my eyes when my parents told me to think about the future and realize that one day, I wouldn't just be responsible for myself but for my children as well. You just don't think of that stuff when you're your age, because you only hear it from your parents (whom you dismiss) and your same-age friends who feel the same way you do. If I had known someone my age now (26) and told me stuff like this when I was 16, I would've really listened, taken it into account and changed some of the decisions I ultimately ended up making.

Your parents aren't out to get you. And there is a WORLD of difference between your world right now and the real world. Please trust me on this. I'm not demeaning any of you, but you have so much yet to learn that you can only learn by living and experience.