By Maddie Riggs
Maybe I don’t speak for everyone, but you know when you’re 10 years old, and you think,“I can’t wait to be 17”? Remember when you planned everything out like, “I’m going to date a really smart guy, that plays football and is sweet. I’m going to have a nice car and go to prom and be popular and have all the friends!”
Looking back on it now at 17, I picture what it was like when I was 10. Yeah, every kid had their problems and maybe a crazy family life (albeit not as crazy as mine). Our worries were if the cute blond boy in the back of the class liked us. Our “drama” was when Katie said I had ugly tennis shoes to Rebecca. Why did we want to grow up so fast? The answer is because we didn’t know our life would be like this. We thought at 17 we would have everything figured out. The thing about it is that no one at 17 has it figured out. No matter how much you tell yourself that you do. We tell ourselves that we are just trying to make it through the day, the week, or the year. We do the best we can even if someone else doesn’t think that that’s enough. We know everything and nothing at all. We are beyond cultured because of the technology of our age, but yet, we forget to look up to actually experience that culture.
We are lectured by generations that have no idea what it was like to grow up in our time; the same way we have no idea what it was like in their time. Everything now is hard and fast. It’s money=success mentality; it is like no one in this world is recognized unless they are rich, and people are famous now for just existing. We are in a time where everyone is so offended by everything. Where playing victim to something has become the new status quo. Where we can’t turn on the news without reading another story of a cop/civilian shoot out. We are growing up in a world where everyone is picking sides. For God sake, our Presidential Race has become a reality show. We are old enough to acknowledge it, understand it, but there isn’t exactly much we can do. We feel like everything's going right over our head. That maybe we are in over our head.
It is hard. It is so much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be. The bad is like hell.
The only solace I get out of it is, the good; the good is something I didn’t even know existed. The good we have at 17 is so new. It’s something we have never experienced before now. It is heartbreak healing and first loves. It’s second loves, second chances, new friendships, opportunities, and just figuring everything out as we go and when we actually do something right; the first time it’s like being on stage and not screwing up. It’s beyond amazing. It’s euphoria.
The worst thing about being 17 is nothing is the way I planned it when I was 10 years old.
The best thing about being 17 is that it’s okay, because some things worked out so much better than my pubescent self could have ever planned.
Maybe I don’t speak for everyone, but you know when you’re 10 years old, and you think,“I can’t wait to be 17”? Remember when you planned everything out like, “I’m going to date a really smart guy, that plays football and is sweet. I’m going to have a nice car and go to prom and be popular and have all the friends!”
Looking back on it now at 17, I picture what it was like when I was 10. Yeah, every kid had their problems and maybe a crazy family life (albeit not as crazy as mine). Our worries were if the cute blond boy in the back of the class liked us. Our “drama” was when Katie said I had ugly tennis shoes to Rebecca. Why did we want to grow up so fast? The answer is because we didn’t know our life would be like this. We thought at 17 we would have everything figured out. The thing about it is that no one at 17 has it figured out. No matter how much you tell yourself that you do. We tell ourselves that we are just trying to make it through the day, the week, or the year. We do the best we can even if someone else doesn’t think that that’s enough. We know everything and nothing at all. We are beyond cultured because of the technology of our age, but yet, we forget to look up to actually experience that culture.
We are lectured by generations that have no idea what it was like to grow up in our time; the same way we have no idea what it was like in their time. Everything now is hard and fast. It’s money=success mentality; it is like no one in this world is recognized unless they are rich, and people are famous now for just existing. We are in a time where everyone is so offended by everything. Where playing victim to something has become the new status quo. Where we can’t turn on the news without reading another story of a cop/civilian shoot out. We are growing up in a world where everyone is picking sides. For God sake, our Presidential Race has become a reality show. We are old enough to acknowledge it, understand it, but there isn’t exactly much we can do. We feel like everything's going right over our head. That maybe we are in over our head.
It is hard. It is so much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be. The bad is like hell.
The only solace I get out of it is, the good; the good is something I didn’t even know existed. The good we have at 17 is so new. It’s something we have never experienced before now. It is heartbreak healing and first loves. It’s second loves, second chances, new friendships, opportunities, and just figuring everything out as we go and when we actually do something right; the first time it’s like being on stage and not screwing up. It’s beyond amazing. It’s euphoria.
The worst thing about being 17 is nothing is the way I planned it when I was 10 years old.
The best thing about being 17 is that it’s okay, because some things worked out so much better than my pubescent self could have ever planned.