Therefore, much time in a teenager’s life is devoted to making sure you don’t offend anyone you shouldn’t, and that you don’t do anything stupid or strange which would warrant you being disowned from the group. Much time is also spent on making sure you don’t lack accomplishments. For teenage boys this usually centres on girls, the more you conquer, the greater dominance you receive. For a girl, however, it becomes more complicated and can range from acceptance of fashion that you wear to how many parties she has attended recently.
Unfortunately, teenagers make life more difficult for themselves by trying to catapult themselves into a higher status through lies, saying how, for example, a male teen managed to “pull a bird” at a club, when in fact, nothing happened. This raises the stakes for the other people in that group, who then may also feel the need to lie, causing a spiral of lies and abolishment of self confidence. These lies usually pass through a group as teenagers seem infinitely better at lying to each other, than convincing a teacher that they, “Left their homework at home.”
Teenagers still have to deal with everything else too. For example, I wake up from my nightly nap much earlier than the rest of my family; they occasionally wake from hibernation just in time to see me shuffle reluctantly out of the house. If caught, they bombard me with patronising comments. Some might think that this is simply a show of their love, wanting to make sure their son was safe, but the comments become so simple it becomes obvious they expected me to do something stupid. This is continued through the day, by most adults, and members of most authorities. Many of my peers will agree that being patronised has become part of an every day annoyance. Adults seem to forget their own childhood and what they were capable of, teenagers of my age can be mature, responsible and organised. It seems to be a pattern which can be seen through growth, year elevens such as myself often find ourselves patronising the years below us before remembering that we hated those that did it upon us, perhaps being older gives us an instant feeling of superiority during the teenage years.
The amount of responsibility and respect to a teenager does not come gradually either, but tends to go on “jumps” according to age or school year. For example, there is a definite difference in the treatment of year twelve and year eleven students, far past the simple reason the year twelves and up have chosen to stay in education, whereas my year requires an education by law. Stating you are fifteen or sixteen tends to have an immediate difference in the reaction of the adult in question. This can be seen best in queues for a fifteen or over film, where when questioned about their age, teenagers answering fifteen get a slight look of contempt from the staff, while anyone quoting the age of sixteen or over tends to receive a far friendlier look.
Many older people wish they could re-live this period of their life, but I believe their view has probably been overlaid by nostalgia. Who would want this horribly complicated social structure? Who would want to be patronised by most of the population?
Interestingly, the government imposes the same message as you pay taxes from the age of sixteen, yet you cannot vote on who spends this money until you’re eighteen. They, too seem to believe the younger population are too stupid to vote, and should by no means be given the power to alter the state of the government.
Everyone has been a teenager, and they probably swore to themselves that they wouldn’t become like the adults of their day. However, it seems people change, forget and simply can’t resist wielding their staff of power over those below them in the social hierarchy. This, in a way, is a very example of how power corrupts.
Teenage life teaches you several important lessons though. Life isn’t fair, help isn’t always their, and sometimes, you just have to fight your own battles.
