Human society places significant emphasis on many of the things young people should expect upon "growing up" or getting older. Young people hear about taxes, responsibilities, not having time to enjoy life, and all of the other seemingly horrible things that come with adulthood, but there's one thing hat rarely gets mentioned: Everyone changes with age. If you know a teenager out there, I can guarantee they think they're already established as a person, established in their beliefs, and established in their choices. I know that I, as I graduated high school, felt exactly that. "I'm an adult," I told myself. "This is just who I am." As I'm sure you might have realized, I just happened to be wrong.
As of earlier this month, I turned twenty-one. If we're being honest, it's probably the last birthday that "matters" to society until I turn forty. That being said, it's been a pretty intense time for self-reflection lately, and upon that reflection, I've realized just how many different phases of my life, and different phases of me as a person, I've been through in the last decade especially. I believe I've mentioned a few times in previous articles that much of what I felt, believed, and practiced in my life changed dramatically once I started college. Certain life situations and events changed my life (for the better) in ways I never could have anticipated when I graduated high school less than a year before.
Thinking back now, I realize I also underwent pretty major changes both from eighth grade into ninth and junior into senior year of high school. And certainly, at no point in my life did I ever think those changes would happen. I never anticipated a change in my life philosophies or my openness or my passion for moral correctness. I never thought all of my life planes would be completely different from what they were when I graduated. I couldn't have known, and that's, honestly, okay. Those old versions of me aren't me anymore. For all intents and purposes, those old versions of me are dead. Looking back, I legitimately cannot recognize the people I was before, and it's even difficult to talk about what I believed and how I acted at those times.
So while it is important to tell young people about the more mundane things life has to offer, what we should be letting them know is that life, beyond taxes or bills, is bound to change. Especially near the end of our formative years. We may not always have the same goals, beliefs, friends, or aspirations, and that kind of growth or change shouldn't be shyed away from. It's important to talk about so that younger people won't be surprised and as distressed about such changes.
