Youth Culture and Coming of Age: Self-realization and Angst: Do the Two Coincide?

What is angst? According to Merriam-Webster, angst is “a strong feeling of being worried or nervous: a feeling of anxiety about your life or situation”. We would be lying to ourselves if we said that we never had a feeling of anxiety about our lives or our situation. Did you ever wake up one morning and ask yourself where you were headed in life? Did you ever feel like you’re living your life the way others want you to? Did you ever feel overcome with pressure just so you could be accepted by society? If so, you may have just experienced teen angst.

Seeing as how the coming-of-age process occurs during our golden teenage years, I believe that angst is a defining feature of the coming-of-age process. Before I explain why, let us first see what some of the key characteristics of the coming-of age process is.

According to writers, characteristics of the coming-of-age process are experimentation, maturing/growing up. They also consist of moments of realization, emotional and psychological turmoil. However, it is most often seen as a journey. A journey to discover oneself through self-realization, a journey to find a place in society. Does teen angst have an effect on these characteristics? Absolutely! How do we truly experiment in life when we feel afraid of what others will think? How do we discover ourselves properly with all the social pressure around us? How do we continue our journey when we feel anxious of our situation in life? Angst not only affects the coming-of-age process, but it defines it as well.

Does this mean that angst is an immovable side-effect that comes with the coming-of-age process? Of course not! Around the world, the coming-of-age process is different. Take for example the boys living on the Pentecost Island who leap from a tower to the ground below with vines tied to their ankles. There is no doubt in my mind that they don’t experience angst. I say this because they don’t have the same social pressures. And the same applies to every other culture. The issue I’m getting at is that we live in a society that is filled with social pressure. So much so, that we feel forced to live life to other peoples standards. We feel as though we need to grow up and be the way others want us to. And with enough pressure, it leads us to ask ourselves the same question we keep asking ourselves “Am I fitting in?”

Now try to imagine a life without angst. Try to imagine living in society that inflicts zero pressure. Would we not all agree that growing, maturing, experimenting would be easier? Is it possible to say that the journey to discovering ourselves wouldn’t be smoother? Would the coming-of-age process not be overall better? I believe so. Yet, it is true, in today’s society angst is a defining feature of the coming of age process. But I ask you… does it have to be?