When you’re a kid, the idea of growing up and being independent and getting to do whatever you want seems like the absolute dream. As an adult, you come to realize that although there are perks to being older, there are also a lot of things that you can’t enjoy like you did as a child. As a teenager, though, around the time you’re in middle school and high school, there forms a perfect time to grow while still being watched over. In your teenage years, there is a sense of innocence that comes with it, and somehow, I wish that all of us could recognize that in the time we have (or had) it.
Once you hit those first teenage years around 13 and 14 years old, social life changes altogether. Unlike in elementary school, you’re no longer friends with everyone. Cliques and friend groups form; it’s inevitable. On the same note, you form friendships based around people similar to you. You start hanging out and doing activities together. It’s what happens.
For many of us, in retrospect those teenage years are some of our best years. Beyond the stresses of school life and part time jobs, we generally have a large amount of spare time to relax and do what we want with whom we want for the first time in our lives. Teenage innocence needs to be recognized and taken advantage of. It is such a short period of time in the grand scheme of it all, yet many of our best memories are made in these years. The stresses of adult life have not yet hit us, and how we are looked at by society changes too. In a matter of years, you gain the ability to drive, see rated-R movies, and even vote. We spend any time we can with friends, and we dedicate our summers to bonfires, sleepovers and going out for food.
Before your teenage years, the idea of hanging out with a friend has to go through your parents, who make plans, and you have no choice but to accept the 3 how play dates while someone’s mom is out grocery shopping. No one is picking you up for the high school football game or meeting up to hangout. You really don’t have the ability to choose how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. On the opposite end, once you get older and out of those prime fun years, you realize it’s difficult to make time for the fun you had in the past, and you also tend to lose connections but not necessarily make them all up.
Teenage innocence is something that’s looked over and not thought about during, but rather after the fact. There is something about the growing freedom and social life that makes those teenage years so special and memorable for so many. Unfortunately, you don’t realize what you have until it’s too late. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun after those years though. If you choose to live your life as if you were a carefree 15 year old, you may come to see that life isn’t always so bad and so serious, but rather something that should and can be enjoyed by anyone who really thinks about it. After all, why should the kids get to have all the fun?
