Name: Shania Harold

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 Table of Contents

Introduction Page 2
Preface Page 3
Reflective Piece Page 4
Analysis Page 6
Conclusion Page 7
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 Introduction
The theme chosen for this project is “Teenage Depression”. The aim of this portfolio is to
educate the adults and young people of the world about the lives of teenagers in these times and to
10 bring to light the growing topic of teenage depression.

For my reflection, through a monologue entitled “Choice”, I will highlight the causes and
possible effects of the problem of depression in teenagers to cause adults everywhere to think more
about, and to get a better understanding of what teenagers are exposed to that can cause depression.

Academically, I am studying Information Technology and the use of computers and the Internet
15 can aid me in my researching information for and understanding of this particular topic by enabling me
to gather relevant statistics and research documents written by teenagers affected with depression. My
career goal is to become a psychologist for children and young adults. Studying and doing research on
the topic of this project can help me to acquire a better understanding of the situations of teens and to
grant me insight into the youths of this world nowadays.

20 Personally, I chose this topic because I have been a witness to teenage depression. I have seen it
take root and eventually cause the teens to give in to the depression and I would like to see less people
my age suffering in that way.

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 Preface
The monologue entitled “Choice” is related from the perspective of a girl who falls victim to
depression. This is caused by both internal and external factors. The narrator eventually becomes sad
and tired of everything going on in her life and would just like it all to end.

5 The purpose of this portfolio is to raise awareness of the depression of the youths of this world
by showing the impact of the various trials and tribulations. My intended audience is the adults and the
young adults in this current day and age. The medium chosen to present this monologue is a local
theatre production which can also be performed in places such as schools and businesses that relate to
the betterment of youths.

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 Reflective Piece

I won't lie and say that I wanted to be here. For me, there wasn't much of a choice, or any, for that
matter. I didn’t chose to come here, into this world. If I could have chosen, I would have stayed in the
place before this life. That way I wouldn’t have to live in this meaningless world and wouldn’t have to
5 feel the way I do. I used to be happy. But now that seems like a long time ago. There used to be smiling
and laughter in my life and I would like to see people smile and laugh but now, seeing such things just
makes me sadder. I often wonder how other people can be just fine and remain unruffled by this world
when I'm falling apart. When my family was one whole and not pieces of a whole, I used to be that way.
Back when school was a place of learning and discovering and having new opportunities and not a place
10 of suffocation, feeling worthless and pointless, and judging and bullying. Things change, people change,
feeling change, life changes. Now, life is so full of rules and regulations, pressures and expectations, loss
and hurt, chaos and madness.

Nothing is perfect, but to me I had perfect, despite living with just my parents as a poor family in a rural
area. My parents would take me out when they could, laugh with me, help me with my work and
15 studies, and keep me happy. My dad was my favorite person in the world; he was my best friend, my
hero, my joy. However, things started going south for me around the time when my father left. Imagine
me, at 13 years old, losing my father, my guide, my protector, my everything at the time.

I can't say I didn't know that something was amiss though, when my father started coming home later
and my mother would either be very disheartened or extremely angry. One night when he arrived home
20 much too late, my mother was waiting for him. She, of course, had no idea that I was awake to witness
any of this. As my father walked through the door, his clothes wrinkled and untidy, my mother got up
from the couch she was profusely tapping her foot while sitting on, walked over to him and slapped him
across his face. He pushed her away and stepped back. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could
see my mother gesturing wildly and my father trying to hold her and calm her, only to be pushed away.
25 The next morning when I awoke, my father was gone.

To add to everything, school did not help me in any way either. At 13 years I was in form 2 at a
prestigious school in my country. I could write almost flawless essays in Standard English but I had a
difficult time speaking it. Since I entered secondary school at age 12, I was made fun of by students and
teachers because of the way I spoke. I, however, paid no heed to their taunts because my parents loved
30 and supported me and nothing else mattered. Things changed. After my father left, my mother started
working overtime to try to pay for our necessities. She came home at night, exhausted and stressed and
would take it out on me. She would shout and scream and get angry for the seemingly most insignificant
things. She stopped helping me with my schoolwork and giving me attention and as much love.

I couldn’t go to anyone for help with my schoolwork either because we couldn’t afford lessons, I had no
35 friends and even my teachers ostracized me for not being up to par with their expected level of
education. There was too much homework to do, too many tests to study for and too many assignments
to hand in all on my own. I became demotivated and eventually very stressed out when I started
handing in assignments late, failing exams and getting in trouble for not doing all my homework. I was

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 behind in all my subjects, I was teased and bullied at school, my favorite person in the world walked out
40 on me and I had no one to talk to. I was sad and alone.

This eventually caused me to start thinking that things wouldn’t get any easier for me; life would just get
worse. It felt as though I had fallen into a deep dark hole and there was no way out. To me, there was no
point to life anymore and that I may as well die. I wondered if I take my life, if anyone would really care.
Tell me how I'm supposed to get out of feeling like this. Is there a better way out?

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 Analysis
The reflective piece “Choice” recounts the challenging experiences of a young girl who begins to
suffer from depression due to factors such as her father moving out, being taunted at school, and feeling
neglected by her mother. A combination of dialectal variation, attitudes to language and communicative
5 behaviors is employed. However, for this exercise, only two will be discussed; attitudes to language and
communicative behaviors.

Language attitudes are the feelings people have about their own language variety or the
languages or language varieties of others which result from a number of factors including historical and
social ones. Within the reflective piece, attitudes to language was exhibited by persons at the persona’s
10 school. The persona was teased and ostracized by other schoolmates and teachers because the way in
which he/she spoke was different, in the sense that the persona did not speak Standard English as well
as everyone else at their school did, having grown up in a rural area as seen in Line 25: ”I was made fun
of by students and teachers because of the way I spoke..”

Communicative behaviors refers to the communication of impressions to others without being

15 aware of doing so and sometimes without even wishing to do so. Communicative behaviors, artifacts,
movement and chronemics are utilized in the piece. The use of chronemics is visualized when the
persona’s father starts arriving home gradually later, until he is far too late. This hints at the idea that he
has begun to do something he is unaccustomed to doing. The use of artifacts is seen when the persona’s
father arrives home and his clothes are wrinkled and untidy when they are usually well-kept. This serves
20 to strengthen the idea that the persona’s father was out doing something he should not have been
doing. The use of movement is illustrated both when the persona’s mother was tapping her foot, which
expresses the idea that she was impatient, and when the persona’s mother slaps the persona’s father
across his face, adding to the perception that he did something wrong.

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 Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the writer has effectively solidified his/her purpose by showing
the impact of various trials and tribulations of teenagers, on teenagers and granting insight into the
mindset of a struggling teen.

5 Also, throughout the piece, the writer used various linguistic criteria such as communicative
behaviors, attitudes to language and dialectal variation to appeal to the audience. The struggle of a
teenager with depression in this society is vividly depicted.

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 Bibliography
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/124/4/e596

10 http://www.livestrong.com/article/161448-effects-of-teenage-depression/

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/teen-depression/symptoms-causes/dxc-
20164556

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/dlp/depression-information/teen-depression/

http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/teen-depression

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