In Loving Memory of Matthew Adam Kane

UseYourVoice is a place for discovery, laughter, realization, acceptance, and creativity.  Through stories, art, quotations, and forums, we realize we are not alone in our thoughts.  We all experience love, pain, and joy.  We all have our low moments of depression and the highs of being there for a friend in need.

This site is completely run by and created for High School and College Age people.  With topics ranging from sex, drugs, and alcohol to depression, inspiration, and entertainment - there is something for everyone.

Come hang out, tell some jokes, read some poetry, vent some anger, or help a depressed kid realize he's never alone.

Use Your Voice Mission Statement and History

The Arts
Archived poetry and Prose

Forums

The Quotations
From inspiring to humorous

Stories
Selections from the forums

FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions

In Loving Memory of Matthew Adam Kane

Links

First, there is High School...

The Drama "Listen we're all worried, we're all in pain, that just comes with having eyes with having ears, but just remember one thing, it can't get any worse, it can only get better. I mean high school is the bottom. Being a teenager sucks, but that's the point, surviving it is the whole point. Quitting is not going to make you strong, living will. So just hang on and hang in there."
"Happy Harry Hard-on" Pump Up The Volume

I got along better with the guys than with the girls. Only two girls came up to talk to me. Later I found out they were telling their boyfriends, 'If you talk to her, I'll kill you.' It's always rough with that high school thing.
Christina Aguilera
 

 

The Isolation and Acceptance You were at school and you were pimply and no one wanted to know you. You get into a group and you've got thousands of chicks there.
Eric Clapton

I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that.
Dick Gregory
 

 
The Naivety It is hard to convince a high school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry.
Edgar W. Howe
 
 
The Truth? The function of a child is to live his own life - not the life that his anxious parents think he should live.
A. S. Neil

Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.
Muhammad Ali

 

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Then, there is College...

The Fun College is the best time of your life.  When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?
David Wood
 
 
The Academics Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities:  the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates.
Abbott Lawrence Lowell
 
 
Appreciation of Culture

It takes most men five years to recover from a college education, and to learn that poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.
Brooks Atkinson, Once Around the Sun, 1951
 

 
The Impending Doom of Real Life A liberal-arts education is supposed to provide you with a value system, a standard, a set of ideas, not a job. 
Caroline Bird

Nowadays, when a speaker tells the graduates that the future is theirs - is that a promise, or a threat?
Milton Berle
 

 
The Truth? The chief value in going to college is that it's the only way to learn it really doesn't matter.
George Edwin Howes

To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States.
George W. Bush

 

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It is during this time you learn to Use Your Voice.

The teenage and young adult years are filled with laughter, sorrow, discovery, and failure.  The first sip of alcohol (most likely illegally obtained), the crush we had on our 6th grade math teacher, the pain of finding out one of your "best" friends has been talking behind your back, the first time you were forced to choose between ethical and easy, and the heartache and joy of finding and/or losing your first love.  These experiences all teach us that life is more than the expectations of our parents, the expectations of our peers, and the expectations of our teachers.  Learning takes place through experience and maturity through adversity.

At the same time, laughter, prank calls, drunken nights, unexpected sexual encounters, unexplainable feelings and reactions all contribute to who we are.

Share who you are, explore who you are, find out what it means to be who you are - the easiest way is to Use Your Voice.