Hello,
I will be turning 17 in just a few weeks and I have realised that I am nearly an adult! This is something my friends at school are very familiar with, they are told continually that they will be all grown up soon and they will need qualifications and jobs to survive the 'world of adulthood'.
But I am home educated, so I have been around adults and I have had time to get to know them so the transition from child to adult has been easier. Easier but not easy. When I turned about 14 I was almost ready to be treated as an adult but not ready to leave the comfort of my home. I read recently that teenagers need their parents as much as babies but in a different way, and that mixed with the desire to be a grown up is a difficult and confusing place to be. This is an interesting piece of research on teenagers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11410483/Revealed-the-science-behind-teenage-laziness.html
The thing about being a teenager is that you are in transition, like a caterpillar in a cocoon you are half child and half grown up with no middle ground to stand on. My parents have always understood my rebelliousness and because they have helped me by supporting my crazy schemes and letting me learn the hard way (they have also been honest and upfront with their advice and opinions about the things I wanted to do.) I have never had a whole lot to rebel against.
I wanted to die my hair bright red and wear trainers everyday instead of school shoes when I was thirteen. I was fresh out of school and enjoying my newfound freedom. My mother cut and died my hair and I bought shiny new trainers.
Three years later and I have a job, a new haircut (and colour) and the way I dress is as different as the way I think. but I don't wear crazy clothes or dress inappropriately or say insensitive things at the wrong moment, because I have learned (sometimes the hard way) how to exist in the world, partly through watching my parents and partly through trial and error. I am not a social pariah or a recluse, but neither do I have hundreds of friends. I am pretty much normal.
So for anyone who is a teen or a parent of a teen I just wanted to say don't worry. chances are you will turn into an ordinary adult one day, most people do.
But we can always hope that you turn out weird and interesting.
bye.
