Face it — you are stuck with us, at least for the next few years! And avoiding spending time with us, rejecting our hugs, and refusing to talk is not going to change that. So in the interest of peace and harmony, I am going to share a few things with you that you probably don’t know in the hopes that they may help you to better tolerate us.
1. We are not perfect. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t even know all of the questions! But we do know some of the answers, we know how to find the ones that we don’t know, and believe it or not — just like you know more now that you did just a few short years ago, so do we.
2. We are not cool… but we used to be! I know it seems that we are so out of touch with your world. And truthfully, many of us probably are. You may even see us as boring with no capacity for humor or amusement. But we were once the rulers of our own universe.
3. We are evolving and growing – just like you. We are all a work-in-progress. At each stage of our lives, we are thrown into situations we have never before experienced. And because no one likes to appear stupid or unprepared, we often make the mistake of muddling through without asking for help from someone who has gone down that path before us.
4. We don’t know what it feels like to be you (but we do know what it feels like to be your age). Even though it was eons ago, we were once your age (and it really wasn’t as long ago as it seems). And while many things have changed, all teenagers face the big five challenges: Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Independence and Education.
5. We are not too old to understand love, sex, and temptation. Yes, Virginia, there is Love, Sex, and Temptation after high school and college. In fact, unless you have been hiding under a rock lately, you have seen that the headlines are full of it! (Besides, how do you think you got here?)
6. We have dreams, too. Inside each of us is a greater version of ourselves trying desperately to get out. Within our collective hearts we are giving birth to the great American novel, creating a work of art that will move millions to tears, building an empire that will change the world and playing the perfect game of golf, basketball, or tennis.
7. We were also misunderstood by our parents. Do you think that you are the only teenager whose parents don’t understand them? Au contraire, my usually wise young friend! Your Grandparents didn’t understand your parents either.
8. We really have gained some wisdom by our life experience. Just like you now know more than you knew when you were younger, we now know a few things that you don’t. Life is like that. Experiences teach us, and the more experiences we have, the more we learn from them.
9. We are not trying to control you. We are trying to teach you, to guide you, and to help you to stay out of the potholes we stepped in ourselves. All parents want their childrens’ lives to be better than theirs. We try to protect you from pain, make the path easier to walk, and keep you safe and happy. We can’t help it — it’s a job requirement.
10. We love you more than you think. Sometimes our rules and regulations (and the resulting conflicts that arise from them) may make you feel that we don’t care about the things that you care about. Consequently, you may even feel that we don’t care about you.
But here’s a little tip that no one tells you — that independence comes with a price. It’s called age! No one gains independence without getting older. And we’ve already established that by getting older, you become less “cool”, lose touch with what’s going on, and generally become boring and no fun. So be careful what you wish for — you just might get more than you wanted! You might become old and irrelevant — like us!
So now that we have found some common ground — do you think we could finally have that hug?
via: crosswalk.com
