Thursday Thoughts On Teenagers

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago I was a teenager. I slept late and stayed up to the wee hours of the morning. I did what I had to do to keep peace with my parents and for the most part I stayed out of trouble.  I was taller than most of the girls and the guys in my class and I hated that. I spent my teen years wishing I was shorter, that my brown hair was blonde and that my body shape was more like Marilyn Monroe and less like Cher. If I had to sum up my teen years I could do it in one word: misfit.

Remember the Rudolf the Reindeer movie and the Island of Misfit Toys? That’s where I thought I belonged. I was convinced no one in the world looked like I did, had the same problems I did, or felt like I did inside. It wasn’t fun being me during those years.

And because of that when it came time to choose what age student I wanted to work with I knew immediately I wanted to work with teenagers.

Working with teenagers in the classroom is different from having your own, for one thing you can’t send your own home at three every afternoon.

A good friend of mine was visiting and she told me about some advice a friend of hers gave his teenage sons. “If you get arrested stay in jail as long as possible. You will be safer there than you will be at home.”

Some teens sail through the teen years as easily as a yacht on smooth water, while others struggle just to keep their heads above water. I wish there was a way to make the ones who struggle understand that so many of the things that you think are important during your teen years really aren’t, but most of them will be like me and have to find that out for themselves.

I love teenagers, even the ones that gave me the hardest time in my classroom. They are like the young trees in my yard. They just need time, some water and some sunshine to help them deepen their roots, grow, and blossom.