By Annie Wen
Staff Writer
“When adults say, ‘Teenagers think they are invincible’ with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes. They forget that when they are old.”
I gently closed the book and sat back for a few minutes, letting the words sink into my brain. It had been a long time since a book had hit me as hard as Looking for Alaska by John Green did and those words stuck with me the rest of the day.
I have talked to many adults about my plans for the rest of my life: my parents, counselors and teachers. Conversation has always revolved around making the safest decision; I have been consistently told not to do things because of the possible consequences. But my question of “Why not?” has yet to be sufficiently answered.
We are often told not to do things by adults or that our ideas and plans will not work out but we never get a good explanation. We are expected to trust that adults just know better. But every adult was a teenager at some point, and parents seem to forget their own youth when it comes to their kids.
It is no secret that teenagers and their parents are often at odds with each other. As teenagers we are just starting to explore the gray area between what is “right” and what is “wrong”. We are stuck between wanting to be an adult and not having the maturity to handle it. And it feels like the sole purpose of adults in our life is to discourage us from doing the things we want to do.
I can understand why my parents are opposed to some of my ideas. Dropping everything and moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career or moving to another country may not be the most reasonable thing for me to do at this point in my life. But I believe in keeping the spirit of possibilities alive.
We believe that we are invincible because that is what it feels like to be young and have the entire future ahead of you; we are not yet disheartened by failures because we have not experienced them yet. When adults discourage us from going after risky goals they are discouraging us from personalizing our life. We do not want to live the life that our parents or teachers did. We want to make our own life.
If we are not afraid of the future then our parents should not be either. There are few guarantees in life and one of them is that failure is inevitable. The saying “high risk, higher reward” has been proven time and time again, the biggest success stories started with a hopeful young adult pursuing a dream or goal that seemed impossible.
We should not be taught to fear challenges or hard times, instead we should be taught to embrace them. Time teaches us regret and “what ifs?” and I know that I do not want to be a victim of circumstances I can control.
As I close the chapter of my high school life and move on to “adulthood” I tell myself everyday to keep a little magic alive. And I hope that everyone else does too. As President Franklin Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”. I encourage parents to allow their kids to explore and give them the room to grow. I have faith that the class of 2014 will go on to do some great things in life and I look forward to starting the rest of my life.
