When I was in elementary school, my dream was to be a high schooler. You know, going to football games, having a phone, staying up as late as I want, having my own money. Basically, I thought being a teenager was like being a small adult. And it is, in some ways. More like the not-fun ways. It’s like being a horrible superhero. Boy Man: All the fun freedom of a child and all the stress of an adult. His superpower is puberty, and his weakness is everything else. The only crime he could solve would be, like, tax evasion.
Anyway, sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m a teenager now. Right now, I kind of only think of the negative. If little me could see my life right now, I would be astonished. Too often, I find myself thinking, “Being 7 was so much easier.”
The part I need to work on is pausing for a moment and thinking about thee now. I’m a teenager! I finally got to do everything I wanted to do when I was younger. Actually, the more I think about it, I think I watched too many sitcoms when I was younger. They kind of romanticized high school and didn’t really talk too much about the nitty-gritty of it. But I am very grateful for this now. If my favorite TV shows went all like, “Hey, kids! Let’s talk about stress!” I would’ve never watched TV again.
But high school isn’t all bad. Well, you might have a different opinion. But the fact that there are people who actually listen to what I say because I understand how the world works, that’s pretty huge.
The truth is that high school is not what it seems. It’s so much more than that, actually. The stress of friends, schoolwork, sports, clubs, keeping grades up and just trying to be a good person is enough to busy someone for a lifetime. I know a lot of people who are. I’ve met certain adults who are permanently grumpy and say, “Life was so much easier when I was your age! No bills, no money troubles, no problems!” But this is completely subjective. You may have money issues as an adult, but it’s not like teenagers have no problems. It’s just that we live life in a way that some adults just can’t seem to remember. Now, I’m not trying to undermine grown-up problems. Those are also tough. But if you don’t treat us like real people with real problems, then we’ll never be thought of that way.
I want to celebrate every teacher and every adult who treats kids with the respect they deserve. Thank you so much for helping us find out how we fit in or how we can reshape the world to fit ourselves.
I don’t have a good way to close this article. And that’s okay! Because I just wanted the world to know this stuff. I guess if I had to close with something, I would write that you sometimes need a reminder to look at the now, to stand and see how far up the mountain you are, and see how the people down at the bottom look like ants, when in reality, they are just the same as you and me.
