Sarah: Look. I'm sorry, it's just high school... it was a tough time for me, okay?Chuck: Tell me about it. I get that, trying to figure out who you are and what you're going to do with the rest of your life while constantly distracted with raging hormones.
I do like starting a blog post with a not so subtle Chuck reference and I think that I couldn't have said it better myself. Being a teenager is hard. You're stuck in limbo between having your birthday parties at McDonalds and enlisting in the army. I think that it's that human nature which lead us to create the name teenager to try and explain the chaotic behaviour by labelling it. There's the stereotypical behaviour of a teenager which we've all got drilled into our brains because of the unoriginal politicians using it again and again. If you don't happen to follow current events 'past the industrial revolution'. Then it's a teenager who experiments with aspects of adult hood eg alcohol, drugs and sex without realising the full consequences of this adult behaviour. If you want to hear more there's that awfully cliched movie Thirteen which ironically is rated R16. That's a stereotype which of course means that it doesn't apply to the vast majority. The real question is where does that leave the rest of us?
I think another simile for teenage hood is a waiting room. We've been snatched out of childhood but the doctor still hasn't told us what is going to happen next. We're just chilling waiting for something to happen, waiting for something to change us or waiting for that moment when we'll realise our destinies. We wait. We wait watching that big clock which always sits above the table with the magazines on it tick round until it reaches our appointment time and we know it's time to decide.
Children are carefree. When you give a child a lolly pop they don't count the calories and remember to exercise to burn off that sugar. They just think yum. Why do we have to analyse every tiny thing? Unfortunately that's what being an adult is about. It's about being responsible and making big important decisions. Adults don't just think "Hmm jumping off this bridge looks like fun." They assess the risks and make a logical decision (I'd hate to see the fatalities if they didn't). I denied teenagehood because I don't like being prudent. It's boring. Prudence is always a natural step to becoming half of one of those couples who's idea of a fun night out is inviting the neighbours over for a game of charades. Teenagehood is the period of time which is teaching us to assess risks and realise what we are capable of and when that building is far too high to jump off. We're testing our own limits. Really we're children in adult bodies.
There comes a moment when suddenly we become adults in adult bodies. I realised that today. I am one of 2 girls in my year who do not have their ears pierced. I've decided that unfortunately I'll have to conform since earrings are a must have for the leavers ball in December and I don't want my ears to be all puss-y since infections are quite common. I told my mother that I need to get this done and to my disdain she responded in the same way as when I last asked. That was when I was 12. It's almost as if in my mothers eyes I haven't changed at all in 5 years. I know in a parents eyes your always meant to be their 'little girl' But there's a limit. At the other limit there's parents who are taking their children to school to make contacts instead of making friends. Granted they're going to leave school with possible job opportunities but they're also going to end up being the person who has a pile of acquaintances at their wedding if they happen to marry one of their contacts. Cynical I know but there's a limit. I wish my mother would realise these limits and nicely parent between them instead of buying me clothing in barbie pink. My mothers negligent treatment of these limits forced me to realise that not only do I want to be mature I need to be mature. No longer am I going to read Womens Weekly in the GP waiting room. I'm leaving. I'm taking control of my life and that starts with maturity.
3 GOOD THINGS
*AA snapping my drivers license photo even though they'd technically closed.
*The photo above. I took it and I like it since it has a cool perspective and I like clouds.
*Studying in a classroom alone and actually doing work.
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