Many parents and adults all say the same thing when it comes to their kids or just children in general. It goes something like this, “My, my, my they seem to grow up fast!” Some important and memorable times this expression is used would be: a baby’s first steps, first day of kindergarten, the child’s first “love”, fourth grade camp, sixth grade camp, graduation from elementary school. The list goes on and on. I stopped at graduation from sixth grade for a reason. For the most part, at the end of students sixth grade year they are eleven or twelve years old. This is the period of time called the preteen age. Kids start maturing and at this point, they begin to rapidly evolve into adults. This great change is noticed especially through the teenage pastimes.
The best word I can find to describe the teenage years is independence. This important word is what all teenagers long for. At first most parents insist that their kids stay at home with their friends instead of roaming around aimlessly in the neighborhood. This request by parents is very reasonable considering the threat of kidnappers and drunk drivers. This is unfortunate for the kids though. Kids don’t want to talk in ears reach of parents. After all teenage years are when secrets and gossip become important. Sally wants to tell Suzy about her new “crush” but of course her parents cannot hear about it. Therefore this is when 13 year olds will transition from playing with dolls in the house to going outside where there is less chance of being overheard.
Now we reach the ages of fourteen and fifteen. Parents seem to understand that their kids want to either be left alone or for their parents to “fit in”. So most parents will be more respectful about privacy but also will make themselves more teenage friendly. One example of that is changing their language around us. For instance, my best friend and I would always say the phrase, “Ya schmell me?” when asking if they understood. Noticing that his parents started to say that to us and it made him and me more comfortable around them. So now that the house was teenage friendly, more teenage activities took place back inside the house. We would play “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Two”, and “NASCAR” and all sorts of entertaining games. I can even recall playing board games with my friends parents, a strange concept now that I am sixteen.
When I was fifteen, my friends and I got tired of the indoors so we headed outside. We were doing things that our fathers had done “back in the good ole’ days”. We would play everything from basketball to two-hand touch street football. One of our favorite basketball games was knockout, but we also enjoyed a good game or HORSE or just shooting some hoops. Basketball one on one games were not very popular amongst us because we were usually a group of three and that never turned out well. I can remember late night football games with my three good friends during winter. The flood light on the driveway, illuminating the shrunken asphalt field and making tall shadows out of us. We would play for multiple games and mostly until we would get called in by our friend’s mom. Then inside we would resort back to talking which was never a favorite of ours. We always wanted to be doing something.
Other than thirteen, which is the first year of being a teenager, sixteen is the first looked up to year in a child’s life. Why? Well in California, that is, sixteen is the legal age to acquire a Drivers License. And boy how life changes. This roughly 2 X 4 inch card changes everything. For one, there is a new acceptable place to talk, the car. And back to outside stuff goes the teens. There is no reason to stay at my house anymore if I can drive anywhere I want. That is the thinking of most 16 year old drivers. At first, parents and teens have a somewhat mutual agreement that they will inform of what and where they are going. But after awhile, kids realize that the parents have no way of actually knowing. So now, more than ever independence was a reality. I think one of the most important thing cars did was expand the groups of friends. That could be the result of getting older, but cars gave an opportunity to go to central locations: parks, restaurants or stores. And this allows the teen to go at his or her leisure and time schedule. Now instead of some friends hanging out, there are parties instead. Because during this time, the thinking is that the more people here the more opportunity for fun is at hand.
Although junior year of high school is stressful and at times there can be a lot of homework. We still find time to maintain a social life and to have fun. Usually this will take place on the weekends, because no one has time during the week. If there isn’t a huge history packet due, then there is daily math homework or a blog for English. The school work supply is endless. But I like many other teens my age, take time off of homework on Saturday and just hang out with friends or maybe get to a party. The effect of this day of fun, results in a Sunday jammed with lots of weekend assignments to complete. Nevertheless, a week is not complete without at least one single day of fun. Sometimes it will just be with a group of two people and yet others my Saturday will be playing mud football with a big group of people.
As I am only a sixteen year old boy, I still have three more years of a teenage life. During that three years will be senior year, graduation from high school and the start of college. I know that my life will change in those three years, party from other people’s experiences and also from the fact that every year brings new changes in activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment