Teenagers

I think people misconceive teenagers, quite often. Of course, I might just think this because I am a teenager, but if you listen, I make actually make a point.

There's plenty for me to say here, and I have a hard time sticking to one thing at one time. So just roll with me on this, ok?

Adults probably don't remember it, but the teenage years are the hardest years. Take it from someone who's going through them, not someone who went through them years ago. The struggle is fresh in my mind, while for them it's been a while; the details will have faded.
But back to my point, these years are the hardest. Teenage years are when everything changes. It's the time where you transition from being that little, innocent, cute child to a mature, responsible, independent adult. And everything that comes with it.
Some things we can control, some things we can't. We grow... a lot. Physically and mentally. We have mood swings; its part of growing up. Our opinions change, our thoughts change, our feelings change. The teenage years are the times of change, when we are trying to figure out who we are and where we fit into the world. We start FEELING. We want to feel welcomed, accepted. We look for that special person who we want to spend forever with. And don't forget: we mess up. A LOT.
People always seem to remember our mistakes, rather than our achievements. Because they expect us to achieve, not fail. So when we mess up, they remember that, because they weren't expecting it. Whether people admit it or not, that's how it works. You might not realize it, but how many mess ups can you remember? And how many achievements do you remember?
But we mess up. Because we're human. All humans mess up. But we mess up more. Why? Because we're confused. We're trying to figure out a million other things, therefore our focus isn't as strong. So we mess up. But it's life. That will happen. In fact, teenage years are the time to mess up. Truly, they are.
And we're inconsistent. What I mean by that is we're trying to figure out our passion. One week we might be trying to play guitar, the next week we might be drawing. We might start hanging out with friends a lot more than family, but that's because we begin to realize how important they are to us. We discover the haters, the liars and the cheaters, and start realizing who our real friends are, the ones that really love us for who we are. And we want to spend time with those people.
We do stupid things. Yes, I will admit that. Because the sky's the limit. We want to try new things. We're curious, and we want to know. And the best way to know is to try it yourself. Maybe they are completely stupid, and maybe we know they are, but we just want to know. Know what it'd be like.
They don't realize, either, that we learn from influence. Even if we ARE becoming independent, we still subconsciously learn how to act from our family. Or friends. Or any of the people who matter a lot to us. Ok, we might pick stupid friends. But we have our reasons, and the people around us have to understand that we make are going to make our own choices. And the only way for us to learn what's wrong from what's right is to experience it ourselves.
And finally, we're seeing things for what they really are. All the acts people put on for little kids, all the masks they wear, those come off. We see the real side to people. And we realize we might not like it. And we're entitled to our own opinion. Things change, and we see through the lies people have built up.

All in all, we're humans and we have our reasons for doing everything we do. We might not even know those reasons, but to us it just feels right, or feels like something we have to do. The people around us need a lot of patience to deal with our mood swings, and our attitudes. We see things for what they really are, and those who lied have to learn they can't fake it anymore. But we're teenagers. We have the most stress on our shoulders out of everyone. The stress of being young, but growing up. Of being mature, but still following rules. Of being responsible, but being free. We are who we are, and people should accept it. And realize, they don't understand what we're going through. We have so much to think about and figure out, we WILL mess up, lose our temper and get hurt. But it's life. The hardest phase of it. Everyone deals with it differently, suffers differently. But when we take all the shit life throws at us and manage to keep our heads high and strong, well... that's almost admirable.