On the way to becoming an adult you think about many an option and different chances in life. This may cause you to develop fears and hopes along the way. We, the course EN2 with the help of Mr. Diedrich, have dealt with those fears and hopes in three different areas. These include our school life, family and friends as well as our future hopes. We created a survey in our English lessons which was answered by 62 participants of classes 11 and 12. We would like to show you the results!
About school
In school the pressure of grades and expectations towards ourselves seem to play a significant role concerning fears and the type of problems we face on a daily basis. Two thirds of our senior classes are afraid of failing their degree and 89% of us are afraid of not living up to our expectations within school. Not one person strongly disagreed in that regard.
Since our 11th graders are new to the course system it was no surprise that the survey suggested that 12th graders felt slightly less left alone in the system overall.
About family and friends
Students do not only spend their time in school but they also have a separate life including their family and friends. Our survey showed that 42% of the participants fear for losing the support of their family and friends. That could mean that almost half of the students have complicated and difficult relationships with people outside of school.
However, 93% of the participants told us that they have somebody to talk to when they are in need of consolation which ever so slightly contradicts the finding before.
About the future
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”― Eleanor Roosevelt said. Especially for teenagers the future is unknown and sometimes even scary. Nonetheless, more than half (56%) of the participants stated that they wanted to live abroad at least for a certain time. It seems to us that this statistic shows and strengthens the cliché that most teenagers have the desire to experience the world.
Missing a big chance in life proofed to be one of the major concerns of our senior classes. The survey clearly showed 84% agreement and slight agreement combined in this regard. The remaining percentages are evenly divided between “somewhat disagree” and “strongly disagree.” This shows to us how much pressure and fear teenagers have to go through just because society tells them they have to be great and accomplish something big.
Making sense of it
Our survey helped us to get new perspectives on teenagers life. It also showed that the participants gave a very clear and honest picture on what fears and hopes they have.
In conclusion we were able to tell that most of the students who took our survey leaned towards feeling left alone and under pressure may it be by school, friends or expectations towards their own career. In that, the participants do not differ from what our course EN2 feels.
However, the survey stated that we all have hopes for our futures, too.
