“Dear Mom and Dad,
I wish you knew you don't know how to handle me. I'm a really good kid. I get good grades. I work hard. I'm involved in extracurricular activities. I'm class president. I don't drink or party or smoke. I've been with my boyfriend for a year and a half, and we're not having sex. I make good life choices. And a lot of that comes from you.
The thing is, I can't talk to you guys. You're so set in your ways, your opinions are so small, you gossip and hate people because of the way you were raised, and I can't stand it.
When my boyfriend and I get in fights over things I can't even come to you, because you don't like him and you don't want us to be together, and I'm scared every time I ask you if I can see him. (Which is ridiculous because he's such a good kid. He'll probably be valedictorian. He's one of the only normal people I know who doesn't drink or get high on a weekly basis. He's so respectful, and he's driven and self-motivated and he motivates me too. How can you not want us to be together?) You don't know we spend time alone in his room, or that I want to sleep over there because he treats me like a princess and brushes the hair out of my face and hugs me tight. You don't know his mom is soo okay with me staying over, she invited me to come on vacation with them this summer. You don't know I'll probably end up staying there one night, and you'll never know.
You don't understand how hard I work. That I don't just go to school from 8 to 5, but I do homework until 11. That I'm up once a week until 1:30 working on the newspaper- that I created. That I get burnt out.
I know when daddy comes home from work he's allowed to be exhausted and just want to eat and crawl into bed. I know daddy works really hard but so do I. I work as hard as I possibly can and I'm exhausted.
So I'm sorry if you don't like something I wrote in my paper. I'm sorry if I forgot to read or return the form for my summer class. I'm sorry because I don't care, and you yelling at me about it just makes me dislike you.
I'm a big girl, big enough to learn from my own mistakes. I'm big enough to realize when I've made a mistake. You don't need to remind me, and if you want to make a comment I'm open to hearing it but I've got my life under control. I don't need you to rebuke me. I don't need anyone to rebuke me. It’s annoying and it means you don't have faith in me or how I'm doing.
I'm sorry I haven't turned in my forms, but dammit I can hardly keep my head up. I'm exhausted, and that form came in the middle of me studying for APs. Excuse me for it not being a priority, especially because they're so casual about deadlines. Especially because I go to a school where deadlines don't apply. Especially because I'm still a kid, my full-time job is still school, and I've never had to fill out paperwork before.
So let me learn as I go, because it's the only way I will. And just so you know, I'm willing to deal with the consequences of missing that deadline (which is having to pack my own pillow instead of getting one there.) It's no big deal, it's not life or death, so leave me alone.
You thought you struck a chord by telling me to act like an adult, but you just pissed me off. Yeah, I'm becoming an adult, and I'm growing into it.
The point is I'm still 17! That's not an adult, not even legally. And I know so many adults who miss deadlines and are FINE. I'm not going to become one of those adults, I'm working on it ON MY OWN, but damn it! Leave me alone.