It's in the air now
Bitter tears and broken hearts
Teenagers we count the years,
we think we're smart
But were not, we don't know anything
Another post about being a teenager. Sorry, but I am one, so it's quite frequently on my mind. Some people say that they hate being a teenager, that it's too hard and there's too much pressure- and yea, maybe it is hard, and maybe there's an immense amount of pressure, but they're some of the best days of our lives!
Sure, we mess up... a lot, and we have to make all these decisions that will determine what path we take on our way to the future. But we're expected to mess up. We're allowed to. How great is that? Our parents expect us to party hard, to be "emotional" and to screw up all the time. Of course, we need to focus on the important things too, but isn't it good that we screw up now?
We're teenagers. Now is the time of learning from our mistakes. It's better to make them now and learn from them before we enter the scary world of adulthood and have to be responsible. When we reach our teens, we've gotten to the age where we know what's going on and we don't need our parents holding our hands all the time, but at the same time, we've got our parents keeping an eye on us. We've got people who are responsible for us, and our only responsibility is ourself. That way, when we screw up, we can turn to them, cry on their shoulders, ask for their advice and hope they won't judge. If we live the "perfect" life now, then what will we know when we have to fend for ourselves, and even for children or partners? Our teenage years are preparation for the real world, and my parents use that excuse a lot.
"Why do I have to tidy my room- nobody else goes in there?"
"Well, Aimee, when you're up and married, you don't want to live in a messy house. We're just trying to prepare you for the future."
Yawn. But I guess I'll thank them for it sometime. Through having to be careful with pocket money, washing dishes, tidying up around the house and all those other boring things that I groan about, my parents are helping me build up essential skills for life.
But they can't teach me how to be streetsmart. So I've got to do that for myself. I need to learn how to deal with people out in the real world, and know how to sort out my own dilemmas, and to do that, I need to screw up. All the time, it would seem. But I'm learning from my mistakes, which is good. There's a lot to learn, but I'm making a lot of mistakes to learn from, so I'm getting there.
I'm going to enjoy these years I think. I'm going to have my friends, my arguements, my flings, my heartbreak, my smiles, my tears, my parties, and my exhaustion. It'll be epic.
"When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail."
ReplyDeleteFor this, I wish there was a "like" button. There's nothing I can add to that, I love it. & I need to get that book from you.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you the book when I get The Princess Bride and The Hunger Games back ;) It's amazing and I love John Green so much for writing it. I think we are forever in his debt.
ReplyDelete