I kind of know where you are coming from. I'm 17 and my perspective changed about everything in the span of a couple of months. People have always told me I was smart but I have a terrible work ethic, so I changed that over the summer and now I'm an honors student. But along that way led me to some other conclusions, based all on my observations over time, a cyclical formation if you will.
Situation 1: I played the Mass Effect series for about the majority of the summer. While I was immersing myself within the universe I took hold of a controversial subject that has some merit to it regarding the human conscious and "organics" as a whole. This was the ending of Mass effect 3. In a nutshell basically, you fight these massive constructs called the Reapers. They claim to be "the final evolution" and this genocidal cycle must continue in order to preserve organics (ala Humans for example). It turns out, they are controlled by an Overlord intelligence called the Catalyst. It's main goal given to it by its creators; the former Apex race of the galaxy was to secure stability between Organic and Synthetic Life because this Apex race was always enthralling other races and they would end up getting massacred by their own creations. It came to the conclusion that to further advance themselves, Organics would create synthetics, but by the law of nature, the created will surpass their creators. Seeing this as a meticulous complex, the Created would rebel and destroy their creators, hence the need to preserve Organics. It believes that there can never be coexistence between Organic and synthetic life. This directly relates to human nature and the concept of peace. This non-existent concept that will never happen because of humanities dispositions as a greedy race.
Situation 2: After getting obsessed with Mass Effect, I decided to delve into the world of Astrophysics because of its direct linkage to Faster-than-light Travel. I had to teach myself all the concepts over two weeks to understand the premises of these articles. Needless to say, I was shocked. Many people are skeptical at the concept of FTL Travel even though the human race has been in this situation before... 100 Years ago, people were preaching on how flying in the air was impossible and there is no point in attempting to break that barrier of inevitability. Well, through human curiosity and ingenuity, we did it. And we subsequently broke through the Sound Barrier, something they also said couldn't be done. The same skepticism was applied to this as it is being applied to the concept of FTL travel and it bludgeons me to no end. People have no faith in our race, for no apparent reason. There is a lot to be mad about (Politics, war, the Governments etc.) but you have to give the benefit of the doubt to your own race who proved itself wrong a century prior. It honestly baffles me...
There is so much wrong with our race, but so much potential at the same time. We are blinded by our own disposable nature, the thirst for power, greed, dominance. That's just the normal for the Apex Race of Earth. I hope one day, whenever it is, we can see past all the forthcomings of our race and look towards a bright future that is completely free of human need for greed... But until then, bear with it man.