By Opinion Editor, Ramela Ohanian

            People say that high school is the time where you find yourself.

            They lied.

            Many of us still don’t know who we are; most of us just have this mask on that portrays an image, this image that we strive to perfect in order to be liked by everyone else. It follows us around throughout high school and mistakably defines us.

            So basically, what I’m trying to say is— most teenagers are a bunch of fakes, and by putting on this mask, students are enabled to be whoever it is they wish to be, while no one really sees who they truly are.

            One may portray to be the always laughing, energetic teenager, but that teenager may be a really angry person inside, one who never lets their rage come out.

            Or, a quiet person, someone who keeps to themselves, may have their shyness interpreted as rudeness, when they simply were just minding their own business.

            These masks of ours give people a snapshot of who we might be, but it’s never accurate on who we really are.

            I have always been a fan of snakes, mostly because they can do what teenagers cannot. Snakes squirm out of their skin at least once a month; they grow so much that their old skin will not fit them anymore.

            We teenagers, on the other hand, are stuck in this “skin” of ours that we cannot get out of. It traps our imagination and decides who we should be. Most of us are unable to reveal our true selves for fear of rejection.

Perhaps because somewhere deep inside, we are scared to let people in, to be judged and, more importantly, scared of getting hurt. All of us are fragile in some way. We put up walls so that people are unable to affect us, to get to us and maybe end up criticizing us. We don’t let people in our lives because we’re afraid of what the outcome is going to be, whether or not they are going to leave us scarred instead of introducing us to new adventures. So, this mask provides us this wall, which protects us from witnessing pain.

In essence, we never have the opportunity of seeing who anyone really is or what they represent. Maybe one day we’ll stop being fake and all these masks will finally come off.

And I hope that when you look in the mirror, you don’t see a mask.