Being a teenager is a wonderful thing, it is a time when you grow, you mature, you have new experiences, you learn, you become inspired, you aspire to big things, you dream of the future, you love, you gain friendships, you make decisions, you learn about yourself, you are deciding who you are and who you want to be, you do good things, you have good opportunities, you get to meet so many new people and there are so many other things brilliant about the teenage years. But as they come to a close I think it's appropriate to touch on the subject of how to cope when it's no longer just you and your friends having fun at school. You're in this big wide world where everybody's growing up, everybody is changing, everybody is in different places, with different people, there is this sudden weight of responsibility on you, you are no longer young enough to need taking care of, you need to start making big decisions which have a massive impact and you start drifting away from the people that you were with daily and lived your teenage years with.
It's such a scary thought, and as personal as this post is to me, I think it is something that everybody can relate to and therefore something I wish to share. I've had conversations about this with so many different people and from what I see everybody can understand, everybody has something similar that they can bring to the table.
At this age I think it is only natural that you grow apart from people that you were once extremely close too. It is a sad time and it is difficult to come to terms with but as you grow up you do change, you mature, you meet new people and everybody grows up in different ways and at different times and through different circumstances. Whether that be they meet new people who understand them better, who change them, whether it be they move away to university so far that you just don't get the chance to see them, whether they get a new boyfriend who you don't really like or approve of, whether you just grow apart naturally and change into different people without realising.
I'm just going to reiterate that. We all change, even if we think we haven't. If you reflect on your thirteen year old self to your sixteen year old self, to your now eighteen year old self or twenty something self - you are so different - without realising you have even changed. Many things will have happened in that 5/6 year period, it is a crazy time where so many things influence you, you learn new things, try new things, meet new people, move to new places, like new people, love new people. Your best friend at 13 may be somebody you don't even recognise now, somebody you wouldn't even say hello to if you saw them on the street - which to some people is a good thing, and is something they are glad has happened, and to others it is sad and difficult. But some people have the same group of friends throughout school so what happens when you suddenly stop seeing each other every day? What happens when people move to other cities? When you meet new people? Get new boyfriends? Does it work? Can it work? Can the friendships survive. What I find a difficult concept is when do you give up? And when do you stop trying to fix it? When does it end?
For me, I've come to a stage where I am just beginning to accept it. I'm just letting life happen. I have decided that I am glad of the way I am and I am so happy with the people surrounding me and life is constantly changing and people are constantly drifting and we have to just roll with it.
There is also a huge responsibility at this time in life. I am turning 19 this year, and last year I made a big decision to go to Uni and study Media and Communications. This is something I had to decide on my own, I had to dig deep into myself and decide what I wanted to do with life, where I wanted to be in the future. I decided on a course which I think will hopefully get me closer to what I want to do for a career and I decided to stay at home and study and commute to University - a decision some people find mad, but was the best option for me.
I have a few more years of opportunities and different exciting things happening to me before I well and truly have to go into the scary reality of real life. At the moment I still live at home and I go to Uni, but I do drive myself around, work for my money and pay my way so I am beginning to see into this big wide world, I have a glimpse of how I will cope and I think I can handle the responsibility.
Being a teenager is a scary, exciting, sad, amazing, wonderful, horrible, hormonal and beautiful time and the thought of only having one more year left, for me, is sad yet exciting.
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