Self-Esteem is how you picture yourself, what you think about yourself, and how you think people picture you. In high school, a lot of teenagers work hard to boost themselves up in order to not get intimidated by the “threats” school can present.

Bullying, for example, is one of those threats. I know what you are thinking “Bullying? Is that still a thing? Or did I just go back in time to 2010?” Well, bullying is still a thing; it’s just that now with social media, it’s easier to bully someone and not get caught by a teacher, unlike 2010 when the bullying was physical. But the fact that the bullying is now cybernetic doesn’t make it less dangerous because it can mess with your psyche.

When it comes to the self-esteem of today’s teens, there is that absurd necessity to have people liking your pictures in social media to feel good about yourself. Our generation (me, your humble writer included) is obsessed with big numbers. No, we are not talking about math; we are talking about number of followers, likes, and views, and for some reason, if our numbers are low, we take it as if we are not cool enough.

Then you start asking yourself, “Am I good enough?” and you start noticing other people, that you think are better than you in your favorite class, for example, and you will start believing that you are not as good as them.

Teachers don’t help the situation when they show favoritism, and they can say there is no favoritism, but we all know there is.

Because of favoritism, we can feel either envy for the teacher’s favorite student, or feel shame in ourselves because we could never achieve what they have because, “They are smarter.”

Well, that way of thinking is wrong. Of course, everyone wants to feel special, but you have to stop for a minute and think: “I’m special in my own unique way, and no one is like me, and I’m the only person who can determine how good I am.” Because maybe your math teacher thinks you are a bad student, but your literature teacher thinks you are the brightest kid in his class, no one is perfect and no one is good at everything, so if you are bad at one class, don’t feel guilty.

When it comes to self-esteem, grades are a controversial and interesting topic because most people know that a grade doesn’t determine how smart we are, and yet when we get a bad grade, we feel discouraged, and some teachers really help that thought. A student never should feel bad for a poor grade achieved with sincere effort. On the contrary, he should think, “Next time I’ll do better,” because sometimes an “F” can teach you more than an “A.”

Self-esteem is one of the most important things a human has, and high school is the time to start molding your character and confidence in yourself in order to not let anyone break you down.