KIDZ CONNECTION PAGE 22 theconnectionsnj.com Quality Musical Instruction for All Ages and Abilities Call us today to set up a trial lesson or to inquire more about home-school and senior citizen discounts. Now in our 29th year! Lessons in: piano • guitar • voice orchestral strings brass • woodwinds Call us for details on our upcoming summer music camps. if you live here, you should be exceptional, and if you’re struggling, that’s a personal failure. The competition doesn’t just come from school, either. Social media turns every achievement into something public. Acceptances, scores, internships, awards - they’re all posted, liked, compared. It creates the feeling that everyone else is moving forward while you’re standing still, even when that’s not true at all. What I wish adults understood is that pressure doesn’t always motivate. Sometimes it paralyzes. When everything feels high stakes, it becomes harder to take risks, harder to rest, and harder to enjoy being young. New Jersey teens aren’t lazy or ungrateful; we’re just stretched thin. This is not a call to lower standards or stop caring about education. It’s a call to rethink what exactly success looks like. Maybe success should include sleep. Maybe it should include time to breathe. New Jersey is proud of its students, but pride shouldn’t come at the cost of our mental health. We deserve to be more than just impressive statistics. Siya is a junior at Watchung Hills Regional High School. She loves singing, photography, and spending time with family. rowing up in New Jersey, you get used to hearing the same things over and over: best schools, top rankings, great opportunities. Adults say it like a compliment, like it automatically makes our lives easier. But being a teenager from New Jersey often feels less like an advantage and more like a constant race you didn’t even sign up for. In New Jersey, being “average” isn’t really an option. Everyone seems to be taking endless AP classes, juggling clubs, sports, jobs, and somehow still being told they should be doing more. It’s normal to compare schedules the way people compare resumes. If you’re not overwhelming yourself, it can feel like you’re falling behind, even when you’re exhausted. What makes it harder is how the stress is normalized. Being tired all the time is treated like a personality trait. Saying you slept four hours is almost a flex. When someone admits they’re overwhelmed, the response is usually, “Yeah, same,” not because we don’t care, but because we don’t know what else to say. Burnout has become part of the culture. A lot of this pressure comes from good intentions. Parents want stability. Schools want high achievement. New Jersey prides itself on success. But somewhere along the way, success became defined by constant productivity instead of actual learning or happiness. There’s an unspoken expectation that TEEN VOICE Being a Teen in New Jersey Means Having to Always Be “Ahead” By Siya Gokhale In New Jersey, being “average” isn’t really an option... If you’re not overwhelming yourself, it can feel like you’re falling behind, even when you’re exhausted. G
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