The soldiers of tomorrow

Many teenagers have a hard life. I’m one of these teenagers. I work about 20 hours per week and I go to high school full time, to have what I want or what I need. I work to help my mom, my sister, my niece and people I care about. I have many responsibilities which include getting to school and work on time, completing homework, washing my work uniform, putting in extra time in my work, getting extra support at school, studying for exams, babysitting my niece, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, and getting the groceries for the family. I need to take care of my job and be good in school. For me, school is first, but I like money too.
There are many teenagers like me that work and go to school. According to the National Consumer’s League, 70-80 percent of students work. It’s hard to keep focused in school and in their jobs. Some of these students work to help their own families because they don’t have money to survive and they have to be the head of the family.
I wake up at 5:00 am in the morning and my days end at 12:00 am in the night when I come home from work and do my homework. I study and work because I want to have a better future. If I study, I’m going to have more knowledge for tomorrow and I can get a better career.
The newspapers publish that too many teenagers are involved with drugs, gangs, having babies and bad stuff. They don’t report about us, the teens who work hard and study. We represent the majority of teens and we want our voices to be heard.
We are the soldiers of tomorrow.