Complaining—it’s something that every one of us has done at one time or another in our lives. Habitual complaining seems to be a given in today’s youth culture. I see it every day in person or on social media. Everyone seems to always have too much homework to handle or cannot deal with how hot or cold it is outside or doesn’t want to go to that day’s sports practice. I admit that I have complained about these very things from time to time; however, after seeing and hearing the endless complaints from students at our school about how hard their lives supposedly are, I have come to realize the absurdity of these complaints.

Granted, some kids at LBHS have serious problems in their lives that are deserving of complaint, but, more often than not, the kid with serious issues in his or her life isn’t ranting about it on Snapchat. The harsh reality that many students at LBHS will have to face is that everyone has had to write that paper or do that project, but not everyone has spent hours complaining about it. This culture of complaining can be attributed, in part, to the coddling many students experience at home from their parents.

Parents, it is not beneficial to baby your kids through their time in high school. Their future bosses will not accept an email from their mom saying that they couldn’t meet a deadline because they were too tired. Kids need to learn how to manage their responsibilities without the help of their parents.

Back to the students. Before you think about complaining about how hard your life is, remember how privileged most of the student body of LBHS are. We live in Laguna Beach, arguably one of the nicest towns in the world. Our high school is one of the top public schools in the state with a dedicated and caring staff. We have great coaches for our sports accompanied by well maintained athletic facilities. Most of us don’t have much of anything to complain about, but hey, look who just took the time to complain about how much he detests complaining.