Teenage: We Are Opinionated

If you're a teenager, are your proud of yourself, your choices, your mistakes and everything you've done in life so far? If you're past that phase, then do you remember what teenage and your thought process was like?

Guess what? I am 18 and I'm proud of who I am and the choices I've made; From big, to small, from what I've allowed myself to think and form opinions to what I've allowed myself to feel. I'm proud of it all. Even my mistakes. Because today I know that they were mistakes. If people don't get me- too bad! But it's their opinion so I'm not going to waste my time changing it!

Today, I'm writing because I'm annoyed and disappointed. Annoyed at how badly teenage is portrayed by the "Adults" and disappointed with how everybody thinks they know exactly what teenage is all about.

If you think you've got it all figured, you are wrong! And if you insist you do- SO WHAT? What are you doing about it? Are you helping? Listening? Cooperating? Or even talking accordingly?

No.

Teenage isn't something to be understood. After all, it's just chaos in the middle of chaos. In fact, generalising teenage as a a roller-coaster ride just for the mental conflicts is also wrong. For many reasons, a few being:

• It was a breeze for someone emotionally
• Some may have problems linking to the environment they are living in.
• Some may have problems because of wrong choices.

The basic problem, you ask? Well, I think, when we're kids we submit to what our parents say or do. But as we become 'older' we are taught and helped to become mature enough to acquire INDIVIDUALISTIC RATIONAL THINKING. However, coming right out of the age of ten or eleven, we still perceive the world with principles like equality regardless of age, tit for tat, etc. So with our newly acquired thinking and those same old immature principles we set out to make the journey of becoming and "I" in this huge world to get a job, a family and a good life.

We are taught to stand up for ourselves, for what we think and who we are but mostly it backfires. At least for the parents and other teachers of our lives. The kid, who's by now a teenager, starts questioning, demanding and reasoning for that "I" with their INDIVIDUAL thinking. Is that wrong? But then the people who're used to their agreement are not able to sit comfortable with it. They can't take queries; queries that come with a huge intensity and become labelled as rebellion and the teen labelled as troublesome!

It's a widely accepted dilemma that at teenage, teenagers are old enough to perform their duties but not old enough to to do other activities by themselves without the parents' consent. The classification? Nobody cared to give. Then what to do?!

And if that's not sucky enough, teenagers have a bad reputation because they're becoming too independent. Well we're left to learn from our peers and during that interaction, if we choose to follow certain things that you didn't want us to, is that our fault? We were never told what to pick and instead left to think for ourselves. Well, we did think but not just how you wanted us to. I'm not saying it is somebody's fault but then why blame us?! So much for wanting us to think for ourselves!

Today, I have my own secrets. They're secrets not because I'm ashamed of them but because they're controversial and they're for my personal growth and learning. What I think  may not be something others agree with. My secrets help me become who I am. And I am not comfortable for putting them up for discussion because that is what I think and I'm not going to waste my time changing your opinion or letting you change mine. It's just the way it is.

When I am restricted with rules set by somebody for me, I don't like it. Because I don't get why and moreover I don't know why. I don't know because they're not talked about. Thus, there's no scope of communication and negotiation over it. I have to go by it and there is no way around it. And when I speak about about my disagreement, I am given a 100 taunts about teenage stupidity. And then I stop right there.

It's called stupidity because others fail to get it and don't want to get it. It's an opinion, period. No discussion! :)