How Life is…!

First of all I am basing this composition, not on what I know but on what I don’t know. I’m perplexed to say the least. How am I to encapsulate every facet of being an adolescent? Having rushed through the phase, I’ll try to sum up every emotion, every state of mind or on how life is or how it is perceived is a task seemingly impossible. Where does it being and where does it end? The actual transition of being a teenager to an adult may be recognized on your 18th birthday however in reality how could this be? Growing up is a process, which we cannot deny because from the day we are born we are curious. As human beings we crave understanding of others, the world and most significantly ourselves. This becomes very apparent in your childhood and adolescence.
We wonder why it is that people come in and out of our lives or even why some stick around? We question whether or not life is determined by fate. Why do we form relationships or shy away from them? Relationships constantly challenge our strengths and our weaknesses. As we get older we say that our lives become more complicated. Maybe because the issues those relationships bring about are more complex. For many reasons a child could not comprehend this.
How is it all going to end? Like many people my concerns lie in what awaits me in the future whilst coming to grips with who I am today. I know I echo generations of adolescents prior to me and generations long after I will have moved on to another stage of my life. However, at times it still feels overwhelming as if I am a child trying on a pair of adult-sized shoes. I stumble in them, I trip and occasionally I fall. Yet two things occur, underneath my nose, I get up and I grow into them. Just when I am getting comfortable, I will find that my feet have grown out of them. Will I survive? That is the pressing question in mind, being able to survive in the ‘real world’. Then again, what does it mean to survive? It’s a daunting concept because for so long it depicted a society that is in constant sacrifice. It is a place where my idealism will be in constant challenge.
I was talking to a friend and we were discussing that major shortcomings in the society that we are entering. The lack of unity and ignorance is what allows our society to fall apart.
He said that we all have a different set of values and beliefs. We think we are right and that they are wrong. How can we wish for peace when we are in constant conflict? Where they have what we don’t and we have what they don’ t. Where enemies still exist as does self-hatred. Many people have different philosophies about life and one of the most common ideas is that it is about survival of the fittest. So do we only accept that people who are dominated by strengths? Whilst they are vital in society’s survival, we as humans have our weaknesses and they have a rightful place in the community. If this is what our society promotes, where the weak are ignored and that we are only in competition, then what hope have we in survival?
I am having a dose of the Holden Caufield syndrome and you realize that it is in the hands of the individual. We have to discover it for ourselves. I have another close friend, who has described himself being in some sort of identity crisis, after a talk we had he had a revelation. So much of his unhappiness had been in the notion that people always wish that they were someone else. Then he realized what he wanted to be – himself. That moved me because it meant that there is hope.
Another friend and I were talking on the phone and she had asked me if she had changed much since Year 7. I responded by saying that personalities haven’t altered much. What has though, is how we perceive our lives now. We have matured and I realized that every moment of sadness and happiness is worth getting to where I am now. Suddenly growing up doesn’t seem like such a horrible idea.

Life doesn’t begin when you turn 18 nor when you get your ENTER score nor does it occur when you have a revelation. Life began when you were born. You needed a journey to get to be 18 and had to overcome many hurdles to get that ENTER SCORE or to have that revelation. Every stage in life brings about new challenges and I am grateful of this. Everybody and I are on an endless odyssey of self-discovery.