HUMILIATED AND BATTERED

UNEDITED SAMPLE EDITORIAL ARTICLE
By Maylene Librando Manzano


Teenagers are always all out and adventurous in nature. They’re always up for experimentations without thinking of the consequences. What matters is, they have fun. But because of they’re free-spirited personality; they put their lives in danger.

While I was going over some articles, an issue in our society caught my attention. According to the Teen Foundation for Adolescent Development (FAD), an organization dedicated to adolescent health, the number of inquiries about Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) is increasing dramatically, being the third most commonly asked issue.

On the article, Cecilla Villa, president of FAD, quoted “It’s very alarming”. Though statistics show that only a few teenagers are infected with such dreadful disease, Dr. Rosendo Roque, head of adolescent health of the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, worries about how STI becomes a growing health concern among teenagers.

There are a lot of factors that stimulates the mind of the youth. From the constant nagging of the elderly that sex is a sin to the pornographic materials and scandals spreading through phones. Peer pressure and curiosity also makes it easier for teens to exult in any sexual activities. Another is the impact of broken families on the children.

At such a very young age, teens are already experiencing the burden of the consequences that sex brings, namely, STI. It’s a nightmare to each and every teen. Aside from the fact that they already acquired that disease, the embarrassment that covers up their face makes it worse. They couldn’t even admit it to their parents because they’re afraid of what might their parents’ think of them.

In the first place, why be involve in such inanity? The youth is fully aware that sex is a very serious matter. With it are chains of consequences. It’s not a simple thing that you can just be engaged to and then leave it as if nothing happened. It’s a big responsibility a teenager can’t handle yet. But despite all of this, the number of teens being engaged in sexual relationships is increasing every year. It’s quite uncontrollable.

The image of the youth is already and is continuously battered by all the unruliness some of us have done. We may not be able to see it with our naked eyes, but from time to time, more and more teenagers indulge in the hands of life’s cruelty and blinded by the luxury of the world’s maliciousness. And in the end, all they can do is bewail and be guilt-ridden before the scornful eyes of the people.

But as a teenager myself, a mix of pity and anger lingers every time I hear these kinds of things. I feel so bad for those teens that are quite lost, blinded by all the words from their peers’ mouth about such things. But at the same time, I feel so angry about what they’ve done. Not only they have ruined their lives, don’t they care for the people they might hurt because of their hasty actions? And aside from that, they continuously batter the image of each and every teen. They appear so inconsiderate of what everyone might think of the youth of today. The success and accomplishments done by others are cloaked by the unruliness of those teens that do nothing but have fun and care nothing about others.

But it’s not too late to change for the better. We are still young and we have all the time in the world. Some of us might have done things that already made their lives not different from misery. What we can do for them is to pull them back together and face the world, leaving the past behind, and continue living life to the fullest.