Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson
Brooklyn Gang 5

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Teenage angst: a defining feature of the coming-of-age process




“I didn't even know what I was running for — I guess I just felt like it” (Catcher in the Rye. p.5). Evidently, I could quote Salinger’s “Catcher In The Rye” all day...Holden Caulfield is disputably one of the most infamous icons for teenage angst. Rather than go on about a book that was written over 50 years ago, I prefer to tell my own story about my own coming of age; my own teenage rebellion.



Growing up isn’t easy. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t a very pleasant child. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I fought with my parents for useless things. Things that seemed like a big deal back then but obviously weren’t since I can’t name one of those things at this very moment. I remember thinking that everyone was against me and no one was there to help me and that I had no idea who I was and who I wanted to be. I was stressed as soon as I woke up and went to bed stressed. Let’s just say, I was a typical teenager. We all thought we were the only ones who felt that way but guess what, we weren’t. It is completely normal to be anxious growing up and in my opinion, everyone goes through it. There are so many things that happen when you become a teenager and when you’re trying to figure out who you are it’s only normal to be anxious. We all go through a certain periods in our lives where we think “who am I and what am I doing with my life?” and yeah, not being able to answer those questions is really nerve-racking.


We go through fazes and none of them are easy. It's a time where we desperately want to stay young because growing up seems terrifying and making our own decisions sounds hard but at the same time we don’t want to be considered a child anymore. We want to be different but we also want to be like our friends. We want to be left alone but we also desperately want to be around people. We don't but at the same time we do know what we want... We're afraid, anxious, unsure and scared. One day were happy the next we’re sad. We realize that life isn’t just fun and games and that if you want something you need to work for it. We grow up having our parents do everything for us and then one day, out of nowhere, we need to take care of ourselves and we need to think about our future. We realize things are a lot more complicated than they seem and that it’s impossible to be happy 24/7. Things are gonna piss us off and people are gonna piss us off. It’s something that’s uncontrollable but it's an important process that we go through because it helps us figure out who we are and who we want to be. 


Finding yourself is hard but once you have it’s amazing (so I’ve heard). 






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