Living the Teenager Life.

Teenagers have a pretty big reputation.  Plenty of people warned me about what it may be like:

“all the emotions! you’re going to want to argue back with your parents more – don’t! your friends will start talking more about movies and boys and college! ahhhh!”

But here are 5 things that I didn’t expect. I don’t have the wisdom of hindsight, so these are just my observations from the perspective of a girl living through it now. I hope none of these things come off as preachy or complaining! So far, the teenage years have been an overall great experience; I highly recommend it. (;

1. You don’t really talk about your quirks.

It’s really hard to talk to other teenagers about your weird things unless you’re best friends.  I’m sure I could talk about how I really love Meyers-Briggs personality tests to people in my drama club, but other people don’t seem to share that stuff unless you can find a way to make it into a cool, funny story. In the words of a friend, “less small talk over text and more real talk in person, am I right?”  (yeahh, I’m not alone in wanting to change this!)

2. All the obsessions.

Maybe it’s just my group of friends, but it seems like in high school it’s really hard to dabble. Instead, you get sucked into go join a fandom for all sorts of categories.  It’s kind of a love it/hate it type of deal.  You can be obsessed with musical theatre, Modern Family, reading like 7 books a week, or playing volleyball.  You can also have some hates, like algebra or country music or Auburn football.  In my circle of friends, I can usually think of one or two things they’re obsessed with, and that’s kind of their reputation. (cue High School Musical status quo song).

3. Electronic screens are life.

When I was younger, having a phone automatically made you super cool, but now it seems that your smartphone is just a given part of life. My phone is a slide phone that used to be my grandma’s that I’ve only had for one year.  Sometimes I really want that iPhone so I can be a part of the snapchat/instagram/twitter conversation, but other times I think it’s probably good that I don’t have a device capable of accessing social media in my pocket so I’m not tempted to go on it around other people.  A dumb phone is a good conversation starter though.  At drivers ed this summer my little phone started a debate on whether they even still make slide phones anymore.  Ha!

I do have plenty of technology and social media, so it’s kind of petty to be complaining about types of phones. The fact that I have a blog and my own device capable of updating it is rather telling.  #firstworldproblems

4. The grass is always greener for the ones who got invited. 

I’m not going to lie.  It really hurts to not get invited to stuff, especially if they’re talking about it later and having inside jokes.  But it’s happened to everyone, including the ones throwing the party.  I’m really bad about pouting when I could be planning all sorts of fun events for myself!

5. This is probably the easiest and best part of my life.

I’ve not been alive for that long, so this doesn’t have much weight. And I’m sure I’ll change my tune when I’m in college. And then starting my career. But despite what media and angst wants me to believe, I am so blessed.  My parents are allowing me to do so many more fun things on my own.  And some not so fun but necessary things, like picking out colleges to visit, jobs to pursue, and classes to take.  But this is a great few years because I get to do all those weird grown-up-ish things, but unlike real life, I get free advice and food from parents who work so hard for us. I have so much ahead of me (drivers license in less than a month! whoop!), but I’m enjoying these next couple of years of teenager still. (:

heyyy…I figured out how to take selfies on my dumb phone!

Thanks for letting me take a short break from the tutorials and book reviews for today and share some random ramblings. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, but otherwise, have a relaxing LONG weekend!