After being asked to write a guest article for Sharni at Sharnanigans I was motivated to ask the one and only " Grub " ( My one and only son Dylan ) to write a piece on being a teenager in today's world. He has been reading all the blogs that I follow and has been really impressed with a lot of the entries and enjoys creative writing, drawing and photography. So without further ado I give you Dylan " Grub" Swansson's first public article....~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Teenager’s life ~ My life
As a teenager I've come across a lot of obstacles such as drugs, drinking, peer group pressure and the growing popularity of gangs etc. Some obstacles are bigger than others to deal with, some just make me want to cry and others some times make me want to laugh. The important thing to always remember though coming into this age is to remember to “ Always stay true to who you are, always live my life as I wish and not as others wish, always respect people and always respect property ”.
When I started to become a teenager I " freaked " literally because I saw my friends around me drinking, doing drugs and joining gangs and I was scared that I was going to be forced into doing these thing but then I thought about how it's my life and how my life is not theirs but mine.
I bet most of you are thinking “ it's not that easy to say no ” but actually it is. I have been through a lot in my life already and the thing I have seen and felt have made me a stronger kid mentally and physically. But keep in mind that all kids aren’t like me, I have been shown both what not to do and what is ok to do by my Mother and Father. A lot of kids feel very confused, left out, neglected and scared and I too have felt this way at times.
This generation can be hell at different times and I believe it is a lot worse now. No offences intended but back in my Fathers day school fights were mainly a push and a shove. But now we are faced with school fights with knives and fists where the winner doesn’t stop once he knocks the other person to the ground they keep going until the victim is brutally hurt.
Being a teenager today scares the life out of me at times, it is a time when every seems hell bent on taking drugs, drinking beer and lieing to their parents ( who they feel do not understand them ). It is a time when a lot of kids are slipping away further and further, more than you probably realise and more than you probably want to know. Rather than criticise our difference, support us let go of us and let us be free to move and learn at our own speed. That doesn’t mean don’t stop loving us or stop baking us cookies just means let us move on and start to make a life of our own choices. Teenagers hide our feelings through the use of drugs, drinking, smoking and more but if you just simple ask them to talk to you, you may actually get a conversation from us.
Remember to tell your kids that you love them before its to late because we do like that, its something we all want to hear.
Dylan " The Grub " Swansson
