Get Your Teen Weekly Newsletter in your inbox! Sign Up
YourTeenMag Logo

Teen Speak: I’m Not Motivated For School. Motivating Boys

A lot of girls I have gone to school with prioritize grades over everything else. I know that school matters, but there are a lot of other things that matter, or that I enjoy a lot more. I try to put a lot of my energy towards being successful in school, but school is not everything to me.

Yes, I feel a lack of motivation does ring true for me; a lot of the time, I just don’t feel motivated to try my hardest in school. I’m not sure why, but there are just a lot of things that matter a lot more to me: sports, friends, having fun.

I just am more motivated to do things I enjoy than things I don’t.

I feel like the main reason that teenage guys are behind in a lot of ways is because girls show how they feel. A lot of us guys don’t care or express ourselves as much. As a guy, I’ve just always grown up thinking that crying is bad. I’m never really open about how I feel about a lot of things because it seems like they don’t really matter.

I feel like I do take a lot of risks and try new things—like trying new sports or making foods that I haven’t tried before. I try to be more independent so that I don’t need my parents to do things for me and I can do things for myself. My parents support a lot of risks I take that help make me more independent and helpful. And a lot of decisions I make about taking risks are based on what my parents would think of it.

Headshot Aidan Turos in baseball uniformEven though I’m not working my hardest at school right now, I feel confident and motivated about the future because I want to be successful when I am older. I want to get a job that I enjoy so that I don’t waste my life having a 9 to 5 office job that I dread. I want to do something that I genuinely enjoy for the rest of my life that also makes a good living.

Aidan Turos

Aidan Turos just completed his freshman year of high school. He enjoys baseball, soccer, swimming, and running.

GET YTM IN YOUR INBOX!Receive our weekly newsletter with the latest articles, media, and resources.