Wednesday 15 July 2015

Teenagedom

I am in roughly the middle of my teen years. I will be turning 16 in little over 2 months and frankly, I feel unprepared and overwhelmed. The time has gone so fast and my life is flashing before my eyes in a way that I’m not sure I’m ready for.

People have varying opinions on teenagers. Some people hate us, while some people dislike us a bit less - and then we’re here: the actual people. Living our lives with no clue as to what is going on around us.

We are confused about almost everything. We have new friends and old friends and changing friends and general acquaintances. We struggle with new feelings of all kinds and the stress of a constant workload. We are told to act like adults yet are treated as children. We’re told to have fun, yet are ridiculed when we do. We are told to make brilliant memories, but sometimes the opportunity is never given. We are told to make friends, but not how. We are told to eat healthily, but are often given the opposite in schools. We are told to live and yet, many cannot due to the restrictions that we all face.

Our lives are forever ongoing contradictions.

At our age, we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. We are growing up and are told to plan out our whole futures in just a few short years. Our interests change and adapt as we figure out who we are and who we want to be.

Everything changes for us very dramatically and when hormones are added into the mix, certain situations can get rather maddening.

But being confused and learning is all about growing up. We’re nearly to that point where we’ll be viewed as “adults” and while most of us want to have the independence and responsibility that comes as we get older, there are still huge parts of all of us, that just want to remain childlike. I don't know about you guys but I still want to be able to have sword fights with rulers and to play epic rounds of swing ball when the Sun comes out. I want to sing nursery rhymes and watch Disney films. I may look immature at times, but if I am happy doing what I want then I honestly couldn't care less.

Most people just need to understand that, while we, as teenagers, do make mistakes – and we make A LOT – we’re still learning. We’re learning about life, about how the world works, about who we are and about who everyone else is. We haven’t been on the earth that long when you think about it, and there’s plenty of room for error in everything we do.


Teenagers are amateurs at mostly everything we do. A lot of adults are as well. Everyone is learning, and while mistakes are often plentiful, a bit more forgiveness and understanding needs to be put in the way of those who have made them.

No comments

Post a Comment