The Luxurious Life of a Teenager

“You people have it all so easy in life.”

“You name it and things are available for you.”

“You are lazy, lethargic and sleepy.”

“You people don’t know what struggle is, you’re being brought up in luxury. “

These pithy remarks from adults around have become like an anthem for me. It is my momentary self consolation that I have it all so easy in my life. It’s not that I don’t want to live up to the expectations of my adults, it’s just that I‘m just not sure about what those expectations are.

They give me the branded clothes, I didn’t ask for them. Same with shoes, watches, bags and other things. I’m quite okay with just being comfortable in worn out clothes and old shoes. I like to keep my room messy and my bedsheet to be crumpled and untidy. I can wear smelly shoes and stinky socks. That must be called luxury in the adult world, but I‘m not sure about it.

When I dress up in the clothes of my choice, am reprimanded for being callously unsocial. I really wish that I got some clarity. Most of the times, my altercations are not with the people around me, but a struggle between my imbecility and my intellect.

“You’re small, but not stupid” is what my mom often used to tell me when I was a child. She used to teach me a lot of values and things like self respect and self esteem. But now, she often refers to me as aggressive, arrogant, self obsessed. Maybe she says all that in her fits of anger because she later comes and tells me that she didn’t mean to say all that. She feels anguished because things become out of control at times.

Well! I try not to take her words to heart because I know that she loves me and only wants the best for me. I’m not all those odious epithets that she refers to me with, she says as she sheds a tiny tear. Nor do I ever want to be all that. It’s either that she has become more impatient or she has stopped understanding me. But sometimes, it hits hard, it sure does man I’ll be honest about that.

I‘m much more grown up now and should have hopefully become more mature. I’m not a child for sure but am not an adult too. There is always this everlasting battle between the puerile and the mature side going on inside me.

(This is a modified version of a fifteen year old.)

Generalizations about us

Despite having given us birth and lived with us since we were born, I wonder if most of the parents are actually able to observe the ups and downs of our daily lives? Do they try to grasp many of our subtle pressures — biological, social and psychological — that make us so complicated? We may not have to pay school fees, house rent or electricity bills, cook meals or earn our own money, but still, our lives are not that easy.

If our adults invested a bit of their time in understanding just how stressful our lives are, it might be an eye-opening experience for them. I want to reach out to them and tell them our side of the story so that they deal with us at least a little more compassionately.

Dear grown ups, we face an identity crisis when we get classified and categorised in a very generic manner. We all might be going through a transition phase, but that’s the only common factor please!

Recently, we had a parent teacher meeting in our school. A lot of parents of teenagers like me attended it. Most of them were concerned about the academic performance of their wards. Some dads were shaking their heads in disdain, mothers mostly looked nervous and exasperated wondering about what their child would do in future.

One ill tempered father started scolding his son in front of the teacher. All of us were taken aback at the humiliation that my classmate must be experiencing at that time. We can deal with failure and shortcomings, but our self respect and public image is important to us too. Such a thing can shatter our self confidence forever.

Among other parents, the conversation was mainly complaints about teenagers. Each parent was only adding items to the list of complaints, but none of them had a solution.

They were talking about issues such as messy rooms, late sleeping habits, junk food eating and most importantly, poor results that did not meet their expectations.