By Jacquelin Recano
Being a teenager is stereotyped as the “golden age” in one's life. But this can really be a huge breaking point for us. The harsh expectations that we fail to reach to reality. The confusion created because of the reasons we can’t be or do enough. The overthinking and anxiousness that come when trying to attempt anything. The interactions with families, friends, and the with social media; makes it so much harder to just enjoy the time we won't get back to truly being a teen. I speak for not only myself but for a lot of my peers too. We’ve been told to “enjoy our teenage years”; and quite frankly this statement always pissed me off because of how overrated and ignorant it was.
With the challenges my peers and I go through and have dealt with, how are we ever supposed to enjoy these said to be “heavenly” years? My mom always tells me, “You have little/no responsibilities”, when in reality I do: I’m expected to make her look good, obey her rules, and do enough to exceed her expectations along with everyone else's. Constantly pleasing everyone else rather than getting to know myself. With things becoming more complex as our generation progresses, you can notice the huge amount of stress it adds to high school students and how it takes a toll on their day-to-day life today.
An unignorable topic is technology. Oh how “lucky” we are to have such things, but this only adds a ton more weight onto all of our backs. Yes, we may have access to things elders didn't before, but it adds more reasons for: overprotective, high standard, overwhelming parents; who are scared to let their kids go. The common saying is, “the World is a different place now”, as if it’s an excuse to limit a child's experiences, freedoms, and the memories they can create. Due to the lack of innovation, awareness, and common sense; to say that the world was any better than, then now, is mindless. Just because the world wasn’t as transparent before, as it is now, proves how we have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes we see so clearly through a screen. If anything now and the continuing generation will be more aware of how society really is. We have a better glimpse on how to successfully and enjoyable navigate through life. Learning the pros and cons of social media, the false representations of humans, objects, and events that may hinder one's mental health. This also can hinder younger children who are easily influenced and can't see through lies and truths. But, wooo, for the golden stage where life is a game we have to learn to play.
After writing solely based on my experiences that have affected my opinion and emotions, I decided to ask one of my peers, Jazmine, a Senior at Eisenhower High School, a question. How does it feel to be a teen in society today? She answered by saying, she feels “We are still treated as if we are kids, causing us to not be as open to the real world as we should be.” She also stated that, “We also don't express ourselves as individuals, instead we just fit ourselves into these different groups.” I felt this would help overall summarize how it really is as a teen today. With higher expectations, but with much limitation.
With wanting to have achieved the world, but only being allowed to do much because of how the world seems to be. With the feeling of needing to please everyone else and forgetting this is the one time in life where we can be able to focus on ourselves. I just hope the generations going on, realize they take part in shaping society and how it becomes for these “ungrateful teens”. It’s not the golden age, it's really the controlling stage: Where we are never happy. Where we never seem to meet anyone's expectations. Where we feel we will hinder our own reputations. Where everything is a life lesson; and never a lesson we can learn from without stressing. We can't truly ever be free for the time we have left.
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