January 2011- 15-year-old Nick Stuban

August 2012- 15-year-old Cameron Kilby

October 2013- 17-year-old Bryan Glenn

April 2013- 17-year-old Ethan Griffith

February 2014- 15-year-old Jack Chen

Four years i spent within cement blocked walls.

Walking to class with my head down,

Trying to graduate out of a hell-hole they call public education.

Fairfax County being recognized for its money and teachers

While students are plowed with stress and pain,

Taking pills to stay awake and forget the world we have been in for 12 years.

12 years a slave.

Some can handle it.

Some can hold their breath for 48 months,

Going day to day like a robot,

Avoiding emotion  in order to finish a four page paper 

Or a project on World War II.

But others can't take the fire.

They can't take the stress.

They decide that a life isnt worth living when its not a life you want to live,

When life becomes forced, and decisions are no longer our own.

Those names I read?

Those were sons,

Brothers,

Friends.

Students.

Woodson High School.

Heard of it?

While everyone mourns the losses of these precious lives,

They forget what's important:

The Why.

Why do teenagers feel that four short years are worth ending a life?

If you ask me,

It's stress.

It's knowing that your life is about succeeding at everything.

It's about becoming doctors when we wanna be plumbers.

It's about being managers when we wanna teacher kindergarten.

It's about being who we arent for the sake of money and a college degree.

It's about striving to be the best when everyone around you is doing the same.

Give us a voice.

Give us a damn chance.

Worry less about forcing us to be the best.

Worry more about helping us understand ourselves.

To grow, we much understand.

We must understand who we are,

What we want.

Why we want it.

Life shoudn't be about straight A's or rankings,

Its about loving every day,

Every second,

Every moment.

Its about smelling the fresh air,

Enjoying the stars,

Feeling sand between our toes.

Stress.

With it,

Our fate is predetemined,

To be cut short.

Without it,

We have a chance.

A chance to discover,

a chance to start again.

A chance to not only survive,

But live.