I Hope You Understand There Is So Much More To Teenage Dating Issues Than Age

Teenagers are said to be incapable of experiencing love because of our young age.

Our problems are said to not be real problems and how complicated can things really get? The fact that teenagers are put into a complete category of life, being treated like they aren't real people who can feel and experience emotions, is absurd. Teen relationships are real and serious and should be recognized as actual relationships. As well as teens should be recognized as real people.

What even are teenagers? According to google “a person aged from 13 to 19 years.” Urban Dictionary says, “Something I'm not proud to be, because a lot of teenagers are quite simply put; idiots.” Finally, Merriam Webster says, “of, being, or relating to people in their teens.”

Now, all three are very different. I am a teenager, however. But, to the kids in my school, I’m just some weird art girl who loves politics and who has few friends. To guys, I’m just another body to play, to my parents, I'm smart, but not smart enough. To my friends, I’m just sarcastic.

What I really am is sleep deprived and stressed.

A survey ran by NBC showed that 66% of teens identify as stressed. Being a teen is a lifestyle of constantly being bashed. Teens are stereotyped as dumb, disrespectful, party kids when the reality is they have more going on in their lives than the middle-aged white man who works in an office. When you're a teen, you are held to such high expectations, with the fact that no matter how hard you work you will never be good enough and always be a stupid teen.

A large part of a teens life is discovering themselves while trying to block out everyone's requests. A big part of finding yourself is love and dating and whatever else somebody would want to call it.

The most famous of teenage lovers are Romeo and Juliet, where both end up taking their lives for each other. Any English teacher will stand and front of you and tell you “They are not in love, they're just young and dumb.” Why are they dumb? Of course, because they are teenagers. Teenagers' growing capacity for positive romantic relationships has been traced by Dr. Reed Larson, a professor of human and community development at the University of Illinois.

After paging his teenage subjects at random times during the day and inquiring about their activities and emotions, Dr. Larson confirmed what parents since Adam and Eve have observed: adolescents are either very happy or very unhappy much more often than adults, especially concerning romance. Research shows that romance has a serious emotional effect on teenagers, age does not define your emotional capability. It takes time for a teenager to realize that a relationship isn't just an infatuation based on haphazard attraction, but an entity on which two people with compatible personalities work together. Romance in teen years is about experimenting with how relationships work and why.

Relationships are truly a learning experience.

I have learned more than ever about myself through relationships, and if someone is going to tell me the hurt and happiness I experienced wasn't true or real then what proves it real? Someone is going to tell me the nights I stayed up crying, and the days where I couldn't stop smiling were all just fake? And the reason they're fake is just because I'm young?

In a Huffington Post article, the author writes, “Going through a relationship while young can ripen a young individual’s mind, while helping them discover what it is they’ll want out of future relationships in life. Every person someone dates during their life will teach them what they do and do not want, and obviously that is no different for high school students. If the parties involved are mature and stable enough to realize what they have gained, or what they have learned, then it would unquestionably have been worth it. It is much better to have discovered what it is you’re looking for in a partner early on in life through experience and looking back to gauge the mistakes made, rather than marry someone not suited for you when you’re older and then realize shortly after that you have made an impulsive decision.”

Relationships can be a beautiful thing - they aren't all negative. Life, itself, is a beautiful thing and being able to share it with someone you connect to on a spiritual, emotional and physical level is an amazing thing and experience.

The point of life is to experience as much as you can and to every day improve and learn yourself as a being of the planet. Your experiences start the second you exit the womb and take your first breath. Next time you walk into Starbucks and see two teens holding hands don't laugh and tell yourself it won't last, instead ask yourself what lesson will both of them take out of this relationship. What are they going to learn about themselves?