Relationships, you probably thought I meant the lovey dovey kind, right? Well, I do, but not just those. I’m talking about the one’s ranging from the people you see walking through the hallway everyday, to your very own family. Although these are all very different, they all share the same core, which is that they are all very complex and fragile. Sure, you could argue that your family is your family and that relationship could never change, but it can still be broken, along with every other type of relationship. I think that we all forget this, or at least, we don’t really care that much if they do break. You can’t expect to keep every relationship that you make throughout life to really last, especially in high school I get that, but should that stop you from really caring about how you treat your relationships with people? Nah dude.

People nowadays (or maybe forever, I don't know, I’m only 18), treat relationships as if they're never going to change. You come home everyday from school and run upstairs, not even looking at your dogs, or saying hi to your mom, or asking your sister how her day was, you are disconnected from all of them. You walk through the hallway, staring straight through people, sometimes not even saying hi to the people you’ve known for years and years, they are mostly strangers, you are disconnected from all of them. If there's one thing I’ve learned about relationships throughout my 18 years of existence, it’s that it doesn’t take much to show that you care about a relationship with someone. Pet your dogs, go roll around on the floor with them, ask your sister how her day was, give your mom a hug, ask her how her day was, don’t live life as if other people don’t matter. That’s about 10 minutes of your day gone, not much to show your family that you care if you ask me. The ideology that you are the most important person in your life is one that I really do believe, and have for awhile, but that doesn’t mean that you just can't care about other people. Other people help you grow, live, make it through life, without other people, you are nothing. So stop being disconnected from the people that matter, you never know when those people will have to go, and only then, will you realize that maybe you should’ve showed them how much you really cared.

The thing with people in high school that can’t form decent relationships is that usually, it's not their fault that they don't know how to form them. Usually those type of people grew up without much love, they were raised to be tough, not show emotions, to be very independent, stuff like that. This is due to their parents, their environment, and the culture that they grew accustomed to. Parents that didn’t give their kids much love growing up will lead to the kids not being able to show love very easily to others. If a kid grows up and doesn’t hang out with very many people, and is secluded to themselves for most of their early childhood, they will definitely have trouble forming and maintaining decent relationships, especially in high school. It’s very plain to see who was brought up these ways as you look all around you. In class, there’s always the kids who just sit there all period, not muttering a word, or the kids who are just straight buttholes to the teacher, no respect. Even though these kids act different, they are still acting that way because of the same reason, due to the way they were brought up. If you try forming a relationship with these people, it's tough, they are very hesitant, and stubborn, they don’t want to let anyone in. Even if you manage to get through the part where you’re just trying to form some sort of relationship, the toughest part is still maintaining that relationship.

To maintain these types of relationships, you really need to be the one who steps up. You need to constantly reassure the person who isn’t so good with relationships. Make sure that they know that you care about them, and that they aren’t weird for a certain thing they do, or a certain way they act, accept them. That is one of, if not the most important part of any relationship, accepting the other person and vice versa. Whether the relationships is between a teacher and a student, or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, this always remains constant. You need to understand and accept the fact that your teacher is here to teach you, and sometimes isn’t going to be the nicest person in the world, as they are human just like you. They also need to understand that you’re the student, and that some days are tougher than others for you and you may not have your homework every day, as you are human just like them. The willingness to understand other people, and really care enough to the point where you want to get where they are coming from, is what is lacking in relationships today.

The only other thing that is lacking from most relationships, and arguably the most important above all is simply, just love. Showing the people that you care about that you actually care, being nice to random strangers, it is really an easy task. Yet, everyone overlooks it, the most simple way of all. Connecting with people, making them feel like they’re not alone in this cruel world, that’s what relationships are about. Ultimately, at least in my opinion, life is about just being happy, and I don’t think it’s very realistic to say that you can be happy all by yourself. Even if you could, why wouldn’t you want to share that with other people? Because people just don’t care anymore; we all wander through life down our own separate, tiny, little roads, with our own goals, aspirations, and motivations guiding us along. Those roads need to be opened up, people need to feel like they have someone to lean on when life gets rough, people need to have people who make them want to be a better person. That’s why I think that relationships are stupendously ridiculous, because everyone acts like they don’t matter, or they’re a drag to deal with. We go through high school and think that we can just get by and do what we need to do without the worry of having to make friends or even just respect people. That’s not what it’s about though, we go through high school to grow, not just intellectually, but as people too, and to grow as people, we need others to help us out a little.