I don't understand what makes adults think that they are so much smarter and better off than us teens or young adults. Now let me explain. I know that adults have more responsibility than we do, and I respect that. They have jobs, families, stuff we don't have to deal with yet. But at times it really ticks me off when they look at us as if we don't have any idea of what we are talking about. It's as if we don't need to have any opinion at all!
Growing up this is kinda okay. The whole children should be seen and not heard thing? I can understand that to a point, and adults know way better than kids, and kids are still in that learning stage where everything has to be explained. But by the time we reach older teens young adults, how are we supposed to start standing on our own two feet and making our own decisions unless we have a voice?
Supposedly adults always know best, are always right, and always deserve our respect in everything they do.
Now yes, adults have a lot more experience than we do, they've lived longer. And while they might have been right about you not going to that movie with your friends because it wasn't the best idea in the world, that doesn't mean they were right in keeping you home from spending the night with a friend. And respect, yes we should always respect our elders, but that doesn't mean as we become adults ourselves we can't lose our respect for them. (Please don't think I'm giving out excuses, even if you don't hold someone in the highest respect, everyone deserves to be treated with respect.)
The thing that really annoys me though is how many adults think of themselves as superior to us, simply because they are adults. They are more mature, past trivial things that we do and just are in general better. Really, they aren't to much.
One of my favorite movies is House Arrest. It's an older movie with Jamie Lee Curtis in it. The basic plot is a boy, Grover, and his sister lock their parents in the basement because they are separating. As the film goes on, other kids catch wind of the plan and bring their own parents with problems of their own to the basement in an attempt to have them work out their problems. The gangly crew consists of Grover, his sister, his best friend along with his two younger brothers, the most popular girl in school and the school bully. While the kids have their own problems getting along before this, they all bond and become great friends. As they sit around the dinning room table getting along, one makes the comment that the adults could learn from them. These different kids all managed to get along and work out their differences without any adult interference. Yet their own parents were arguing and splitting in their marriages.
Last weekend a friend and I drove to the Louisiana Boardwalk for the day. As we were leaving, we made a wrong turn which took us into Shreveport instead of back to I-20. Instead of freaking out and panicking, we kept our heads on and figured there must be a sign leading us back to where we wanted somewhere. Sure enough, the blue sign for I-20 popped up and we enjoyed the scenic tour. We started talking about how our parents always reacted when they made a wrong turn or got lost. Our moms started going into full navigator mode, even if they weren't needed. "Okay dear, turn here, or there, or up there. Or you could pull over and ask for directions! Now there has to be a sign around her somewhere." Our dads would stick to these two phrases: "Shut up" and "I know what I'm doing!" while they drove around with steam coming out of their ears. This is pretty much how it goes. They get lost, flip out, lose all common sense and while the way out might be short, the tempers are even shorter and normally end with everyone in the car not talking until the storm has passed.
I'm sure a lot of kids around my age have heard their parents or other adults say that we need to get over our problems with our peers and just learn to get along, because that's what you do when you grow up. I was under the impression as a kid that all adults got along, drama was for middle school and while you might not like someone a whole lot when you are older, they would never stoop so low as to do something mean to another adult.
Oh how wrong I was.
I have seen some adults who are worse than any teen or preteen I have ever met. You still have your people who get mad at everyone else and cause fights. Then there are the drama addicts who can't seem to stay away from getting involved in a real-life soap opera. You have your gossipers, you're backstabbers, those people who are just over all pains, loudmouths, spoiled brats, pretty much everything you've ever imagined. I know of a few people who cause more problems then they solve and everyone sees it. They like to think they are doing everyone a great service, only making things better, but they are so off base!
As I grow older and see more and more happenings between adults I have decided that in a way we never grow up to be adults. I think a better explanation is that we just simply become older teens.
*I know I have some adults who read my writing, and I hope that I haven't offended anybody. Its just my thoughts and observances.
**When I refer to teens here, and in a lot of my writing, I mean older teens, like 17-19 yrs, maybe 16. Now that I'm in my last year as a teen, I really see the maturity gap between a 13yr and a 19yr, and its bigger than I thought it was. So most of the time, I don't mean young teens, I mean the older ones who are preparing to launch into the world.
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