Dear curious querier,
This is an interesting and prevalent question that I’ve thought about very often, seeing as my dad frequently reminds me that I have years to worry about being an adult and that I need to “just enjoy being a kid” for as long as I can but to that idea, I have a few thoughts.
Firstly, although we as teenagers have less responsibility than most adults, the world that we are currently living in with its political instability, natural disasters on the rise, multiple wars occuring, a growing mental health crisis and the powerful influence of social media, is extremely different from the world our parents grew up with. Sometimes, I think they forget that and underestimate the strain that puts on our everyday consciousness. I understand that being an adult comes with an increased pressure to go to college, find and remain in a stable career, buy a home, pay taxes, perhaps start a family and provide for said family while also balancing daily life as a whole which is no easy feat, but for the parents that remind their children about not “wishing the good ol’ days away” I’d like for them to take an inside look at our lives and view the world from our perspective as young adults in today’s ever changing society.
The journey from childhood to adulthood is a tumultuous, embarrassing, and nostalgic time in our lives and, as a teenager, I can say that I do think there will be parts of these years that I will miss once I get older but there are also parts that I definitely will not want to return to. Some examples include crazy hormonal changes, the constant stress of receiving bad grades, navigating friendships and romantic relationships, finding my identity as a young person, discovering my passions and ultimately determining my future before I graduate high school. Alongside these challenges we also face the violence and turmoil we see on the news everyday, compare ourselves to people we will never meet but who appear on our screens, struggle to preserve our mental health in a moment such as this and face a world where everything is constantly in motion and time stops for no one.
We are an impatient generation, the world at our fingertips and with only the press of a button lies connection and communication like never before. There is no precedent for how we are to live in this world that is so drastically different from the one my parents were raised in and because of that very fact many of us face uncertainty for the future and doubt of what we will endure in the coming years. Nevertheless, I am trying to take my parent’s advice and while still overthinking my plans post high school, I am also trying to enjoy being in “the moment” and acknowledging that there is no right way to be a kid or to successfully “grow up”. Everyone has made mistakes and learned from them, had mortifying moments in middle school that they definitely regret but laugh about now, fallen for someone and dealt with the heartbreak that came later, and learned what it means to “grow up” in the state of the world they were born into without an instruction booklet that helped them every step of the way. And in some instances, I think that’s what makes being a teenager so special, so endearing to people who are no longer children. Perhaps that’s why adults look back so fondly on their youth, because in those moments of reflection they remember how they evolved and molded the environment around them into the place they wanted to be and not just the place they were planted in.
So yes, I believe we will definitely miss these years that we complain about now and all of the crazy moments that come with them, but I think it’s also valuable to remember that these years are tough for everyone and each person’s experience is so different that no two lives could be compared realistically. Another factor is that to some degree everyone has gone through the same fluctuating moments of growth and maturity in their teen years and so we all deserve a little grace because at the end of the day, we’re still kids who have had to acclimate to a wild and phenomenal “grown-up” world, that no one could truly prepare us for. We just have to persevere and create the path ourselves. On behalf of Gen-Z, I say challenge accepted.
Sincerely,
