Believe it or not, it’s hard being a teen. It’s scary knowing that big decisions are coming up, like choosing what college to go to, what career path we want to take, where we want to move after we graduate college, relationships, how to manage our money wisely, and start thinking about all the bills we have to start paying, etc. It’s an ongoing domino effect; decision after decision and so on. Being a junior in high school is pretty nerve-wracking because I know I only have a year left to decide what college I want to go to. I feel like I have less time than that. I know every parent wants the best for their child but sometimes, parents can rub off the wrong way.

Studies have shown that parental pressure affects students’ decisions for college. I’m a witness of this not only in my life but also in seeing others going through that pressure too. Some teens have parents that are professionals and feel the obligation to follow in their steps even if they’re not passionate about it. My dad graduated as an engineer. He was a straight-A student all through middle school and high school. He knew what his calling was ever since he was 6 years old.

He holds that over my head every single time I tell him that I’m still unsure about what career path I want to take. He gives me a 20-minute pep talk about college, and how many years it’ll take, and the cost, and debt of everything, and it’s so exhausting. My mom is a bit more understanding about deciding what I want.

Studies have shown that students are struggling to make big decisions when entering college and, with thousands of dollars at stake, parents contribute to these decisions. According to the study, “Parental involvement can certainly play a large role in the college decisions of prospective students—especially in an era of growing ‘helicopter parents’ who are very hands-on with their children’s educational careers.”

I could go on and on about how difficult making these decisions are for teens and how parents sometimes make it stressful to decide. All I want is for parents to ease their child’s mind and instead of making them doubt their decision or put pressure on them, they should show support and give positive and constructive feedback without sounding disappointed or judgeful. All we want to do right now is live our lives and go out with friends and just have fun, and soak up the last few moments we have of actually being a teen because we won’t ever be able to live these moments again.