Good morning and assalamualaikum to the master of ceremony, honorouble judges, trustworty time keeper, teachers, friends and

my worthy opponents. Love is a human emotion that is in universal. It is often expressed in the form of behaviour. Using this definition in the school context, students inMalaysian schools are competing with one another to have relationships in school. When youre in a relationship, youre cool. Youre one of the gang. But when youre not in any relationship, youre uncool. Youre a nerd. Unwanted by anyone. Being in a relationship gives you a higher status in the school. When youre in love, everything is nice and beautiful. Then the cant eat, cant sleep syndrome occurs.I cant deny that I too have been in that situation. Everything was going well UNTIL my results started dropping, friends stayed away and parents kept nagging day by day. I have learnt my lesson. And today, its my duty to share on the negatives of being involved in a relationship while in school. Ladies and gentleman, the first negative reason is the occurrence of the symptoms of depression. This symptom comes when a relationship doesnt go well, resulting in a break up. It could be due to a difference in opinion, the existence of a third company, parents dissapproval, lost of interest or they could just suddenly feel bored causing them to fall out of love. All these causes lead to disappointment whichwould give stress to students and will eventually cause depression. When a teenager or adolescent is depressed, they are unhappy, lose their appetite, often tired, have anxiety,

anger, avoidance of social interaction and worst, the tendency of suicide. This brings us to the second reason which is an increase in the rate of suicide.This is because of the disappointment in the relationship that ends with failure.What is shocking is within 10 years in Malaysia alone, about 10 to 13 people from 100,000 people killed themselves . But what Im worried is that teenagers aged between 16 until 19 years was the highest group involved in the suicide. And guess what the reason was? Dissapointment and depression in relationships leading to irrational thoughts which caused them their life. Teacher and friends,thethird reason is that it contributes to an increase in cases of teenagers running away from home.This thing is a new trend in our community. Remember Nur Fatihah Mahadi? According to the news, she is a fifteen year old girl who ran away from home on the 18th of March 2012 to stay with her twenty-six year old boyfriend. What is worst is that her parents thought she was kidnapped that they allerted the police. It was a nationwide search. When Fatihah realised the impact of her doings, she owned up and confessed that she wasnt kidnapped. She wanted to go to her boyfriends house to calm her mind. What a shame! Imagine what her parents must have felt when they knew the truth. This kind of problem is hard to solve and is trending among teenagers.Although many ways to prevent it but this problem still happen. Statistics show that girls as young as 10 years old are following their boyfriends, while those aged between 14

and e17 years are the biggest contributors involving 4,097 cases. All these necessary troubles and worries to parents and the community in general just because of love? Please be wise. The fourth reason is the increase in cases of premarital sex. A survey was done by I-kon newspaper to 100 teenagers aged 15 to 20 around Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam. It shows that 57% of the teenagers admit to have kissed his or her partner, another 67% admittedthat they have hugged their partners and 80% of teenagers have held hands with their partners.This shows that our teenagers now dont care about their ethics and etiquettes. This causes worry among people and families in particular .Other than that,according to the research done by Durex in2010 involving about 350,000 respondents from 41 countries, teenagers start having sex for first time at the average age of 17.7 years. In Malaysia, teenagers are having sex for first time at the age of 19.9 years. This is worrisome.

Fifthis the increase in the number of illegal abortions. I do not have to explain how cruel this action is as we all have seen and heard of the many cases of baby-dumping adorning the front page of our newspapers as well as the national news on television. Statistics in Malaysia show that 396 cases were recorded from 2005 until last year. Last year, there were about 91 cases and in January 2011 alone,34 cases of abortions were reported in the newspaper in Malaysia. What is happening in the world today? Humans are taking lives into their own hands. Even animals protect and love their own kin. Are we

saying humans need to learn from the animal kingdom? Ladies and gentleman, what I can conclude is that not all relationships in the early age will lead to depression, suicide, running away from home, pre-marital sex and abortion but the tendency IS there. And statistics have shown this. Teenagers are very easily influenced and without the right teachings and guidance from God and their parents, a lot of negatives can happen. I am not asking you teenagers to break off with your partners and go solo BUT this is merelyt a reminder to be careful, take care and think wisely before doing anything. Our responsibility as students is to study. If we are in a love, study has to always be our priority. With that, I end my speech. Assalammualaikumwarahtullahiwabarakatuh.