How many times have you heard that one in primary school?

Then you get to high school and they are teaching you how to write a 1000 word essay that you will write at least three times a year.

Does anyone remember that? Are you in that situation at the moment?

I’m currently going through this vicious cycle and sometimes, even after doing many years of it, I’m left still left going “what?”

And that’s not all.

When you get ‘grammar Nazis’ who comment on people’s punctuation and spelling, and reply to texts using proper punctuation, spelling and no acronyms, you are suddenly left with a sense of your own profound inadequacy.

From a high schooler’s perspective, this reminder becomes extremely annoying.

For something else to annoy people, now we have text language.

What this means is an entire language comprised of round, yellow faces and abbreviated spellings designed to fit a message in 140 characters.

(That there has been an emoji movie made is a crime I won’t go into here.)

Take for example: ‘you’ becomes ‘u’ and ‘laughing’ or ‘that is hilarious becomes ‘lol!!!!’

Of course, exclamation marks must be overused regularly.

This is also a problem when you don’t have access to emojis or even a smart phone.

Then you have to tell your friends repeatedly to not send your emojis because they show up on your screen as a hollow rectangle.

Such a hard life, lol!

English is so subjective, there is no one word with one meaning.

If I use colloquial language and emojis in an essay about the cultural issues represented in Spirited Away, I’m going to get an F.

If I use formal language with my friends, they won’t understand and they’ll think I’m weird.

This is just one more thing to add to the list of things I must learn to cope with in high school.

As if high school wasn’t hard enough!

Would you like to be featured as a Young Writer in the Yass Tribune? Email zac.lowe@fairfaxmedia.com.au.