Wow! Sixteen? Who would have thought that one so young could be so wise? We are all so impressed by your amazing experience and the depth of your insights. Not. Yet, I feel we shouldn't be rude, even if you were. Credit where credit is due, it was brave of you to write, despite the fact that you are a nitwit. It's easy for the smart and accomplished and insightful to write, because they write from strength. Sorry, your note just beings out the rude in me. But come on, write it down: 16. Now under that, write down the following: 26. 36. 46. 56. 66. 76. See that last number? That's more or less your life expectancy (if you don't smoke, if you smoke, subtract 15 years). Now, wisdomewise and life experiencewise, where do you think someone on that list rates who is close to that first number? Higher, for sure than someone who is 6. But given the fairly significant difference between someone who is 16 and 26 (someone who is 16 can't even have sex in most states with someone 26 without the older person being at risk of going to jail..)You can't own property, vote, drink or sign a contract. You are not even BARELY an adult. You are PRE ADULT-- by several years. The "opinionated person" you were ranting about is everything you aren't: a married mom, of legal age, an adult with three times your life experience. Even better, she knows how to read, how to look at statistics, how to form opinions based on those statistics. She's smart. You're just pissed because you fall into a demographic (go on, take a minute to look up the definition) that she was saying is bad. She wasn't saying YOU are bad-- she was saying that your situation, multiplied thousands of times, is bad for everyone. And if you think it isn't, then you are not only young and ignorant (which you are, that's okay, we all were, and we survived) but stupid too-- and that's not okay. Grow up. Learning from mistakes is what people do as a society and what people do as individuals as well. I don't hold out much hope for you or your offspring doing much to advance the wisdom of society, but hey, that's the miracle of being a person: you or your kid could surprise us all. Make something of yourself. But the odds do not favor it. You could, however, if you tried really hard, try to learn, grow, become smart and make something of yourself. I hope you do. We all do. Good luck.