Shannon Morgan
Staff Writer
@shannonlacyy
I have been given small amounts of adulthood, and like a kid who who has had their first taste of candy, I want more.
With age comes the desire and need for independence. Self reliance is a necessity as we head on to college and the “real” world, but how can we be ready for the real world when all we have known is adults making the decision for us?
When summer comes, life is wonderful. We are getting to drive where we please and get jobs. We finally start to satisfy our craving of adulthood and the freedom that comes with it. That all is ripped away come August. Little to no freedom, only school and homework.
This of course cannot be helped, teachers also must go back to school and experience limited freedoms just like the students. Parents, family and others are obligated to jobs where they have rules and work to do. While this is reduced freedom for adults, as teens we have not come close to what adults have and envy them.
You are no longer a participating member of society, but a serial number. You and your other fellow serial numbers are shipped out after four years, and expected to be ready to take the adult world head on, but we are not prepared.
These aspects of adult life not only include big ones, like how to save money to buy a car or know what 401K is, but it is also job interviews. It is buying groceries, remembering to fill your car with gas and being summoned for jury duty.
When I went in for my first job interview, I realized I had never been that nervous. This was strange because I am a dancer and regularly perform in front of audiences, yet I was almost too nervous to speak to an adult. This brings up a question: Why was I never taught how to present myself in this type of situation?
After the interview I figured I handled myself well, but since I had never been taught I guess I will never know. Thankfully I will be a little more confident when I go through my next interview, but I will still never completely know if I am doing it correctly.
I feel desperately and hopelessly underprepared for these things. When I ask my parents how to pay taxes, they tell me ‘you do not need to know that now, just wait till you get older.’ I am older though, and I think it is better to start figuring the adult world sooner rather than later.
We are unprepared because of lack of experiences and freedom of choice. How can we be prepared for a world that we have experienced so little of? We cannot.
It is a never ending cycle of teachers and parents telling you what to do. Since we have no choice in the matter, it becomes a mindless pattern we follow, which does not benefit our future adult lives where we are faced with many decisions.
Most parents want the best for their kids. They want them to stay out of trouble and lead successful lives. But there is a clear difference between trouble and making a mistake.
When you make a mistake you learn from it and grow, while trouble means that you are a “bad kid” and need to learn to behave. Sometimes parents forget the difference and assume every mistake we make means that we want to cause trouble.
Sure, there are kids out there that genuinely cause trouble because they want too. But for a lot of us we are stumbling through life, and bound to make some wrong choices at some point.
This is a part of the learning process though. These mistakes shape us and turn us into the people we (hopefully) want to become. We cringe and blush when we think of the errors we have made, but this has helped us learn to approach life differently.
Adults have gone through the same experiences we have, some more than others. Unfortunately they have forgotten what it is like to be a teen trying to navigate their way through life.
Just as well the demands and standards have changed drastically from their generation to ours. They have had freedom too long to remember the need for it, and that is where the connection between adults and teens is lost.
We deserve freedom because we have not done anything to not deserve it yet. Of course, there are those whose freedom should be restricted because they truly have shown that they need to be kept on a shorter leash.
I have proven that I deserve certain freedoms. Teens who do not have any freedom at all are the ones who are going to get in trouble more. By giving us freedom, we are able to make choices and accept the consequences that come with them.
Lack of leadership traits in teens could be from the simple fact that we rarely ever lead. Adults have been leading us all our life. We are used to someone taking our hand, showing us the way and monitoring us carefully to make sure we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. Let us make mistakes and learn.
The teen years are crucial developing years because they will reflect over into our adult life. It is true that as young adults we need to be shown the way, but at some point the control needs to be relinquished so that we can step more confidently towards our adult lives.
