A teenager’s life is not the easiest of lives. It is surprising to realize people actually think teenagers hardly have any cares or things to worry about. In fact, teenagers tend to be mistaken for children but it is pertinent to categorically state that there exists a clear divide and separation between teenagers and children. For one, a teenager is a person who is between the thirteen and nineteen years old age bracket. Now, why would any one call these set of people children. Imagine comparing a five year old boy who probably still wets his pants and a sixteen year old boy. A five year old boy is definitely a child who probably does not know right from wrong, but not a sixteen year old. You could call a sixteen year old anything you choose but definitely not a child. There is a clear difference. Teenagers are in fact closer to being adults than being children.
As soon as one enters the teenage period, sometimes called adolescence, there is a natural awareness that suddenly grips the fellow. In some, it happens much earlier before they turn thirteen but naturally, this awareness comes about once adolescence sets in. Now, before you jump into conclusions that teenagers have it easy, try to imagine how you adjust to anything new. Usually, it comes with some hesitation and difficulty. How do thirteen and fourteen year old boys adjust to suddenly growing pubic hair in their armpits, chests and private parts? How do the twelve and thirteen year old girls adjust to seeing the hitherto flat chests begin to develop into soft mounds called breasts? How does the fifteen year old boy adjust to having wet dreams and feeling jittery around the opposite sex – feelings that were perhaps non existent a few years before? How does the seventeen year old girl adjust to the feeling of still being considered a child in her home and sent on errands like she was some little girl? How does the seventeen year old boy cope with masturbation and almost irresistible urges to find out what it feels like to have sex with a girl?
The questions are numerous. Teenagers have a great deal of challenges and this seven-year period is undoubtedly the formative period of their lives and should be taken most seriously, hence they require all the guidance and love they could get from older and more experienced adults, especially their parents. The average teenager has so much to say if only there was a listening ear available. Sometimes I wonder if for a moment, we adults could all be teenagers once more, maybe 17 again. There would indeed be so much to say and share with one another
