Hi!

Being your age is tough--everyone that is older than you has been there. Here is a perspective to consider from the other side.

I don't think it's as bad as you think it is. Your peers at this age, however, are notorious vicious and vapid. Everyone goes through this terrible stage of early puberty (about 10 through 16) when the inner demons come. Developmentally, you are at the age when you are just comign to terms with your idenity as an individual. You and your peers are all in this horrible transition state from child to young adult. Some people are really mean at this age and they often glob up into little cliques.

Finding yourself as an individual outside of your nuclear family leaves you in a place where you struggle with that individuality and community. As if being in a community full of others all facing these same challenges isn't bad enough, you're also hit with a body that's changing, a sexual identity, and hormones that greatly magnify emotional states.

Many of us adults look back on this time without any nostalgia and we often shudder as awkward memories come back. We might project that a bit onto you. Don't take it too personally--we've all been there.

There's a thing that happens to people as we get older. Those terrible things happening in the world you mentioned? They have been going on for generations and generations. Totally not new--but new to you. At first, we too were horrified by them. The culture that we've created here in the Western world is mostly filled with distractions to keep our minds off those things. We grow up, get married, get jobs, have kids, and then next thing we know, we can't afford the fucks it takes to change the world because we're too busy running out own little empires.

We still have those stupid little cliques--we call them political parties, SuperPACs, Churches, race, ethnicity, etc. We still compare our vapid lives to others in some sort of competition. Each brand we buy--cars, cell phones, computers, clothing, etc., is a ridiculous and pretentious display of consumerism and shallowness.

My friend, you have a future in front of you. I think the best thing you can do now in your life is to grow a thick skin against the stereotypes and the judgments of others and embrace your new burgeoning self and just not give a rat's ass about what anyone thinks. You be you--keep caring about the world and don't give into the idea of "belonging." The problem with the world is that too many of us are suckered into giving up much of our true selves just for group membership privileges or climbing to the top.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway