I'm 17, alright? I still have to do school, I still haven't gotten my license, and I still have to live with my parents. Now the thing about being 17 is that a lot of people are asking you about your future...what do I want to do? where am I going to college? am I even going to college? You know, the usual stuff. There's a lot of forward-looking.
The other thing about being 17 is you're not an adult, but you kinda think like one. You want to start making your own decisions, forming your own opinions, etc. And sometimes, your opinions don't line up with your parents'.
This happens to me often, but I would like to share a rather humorous story with you. It was, of course, frustrating at the time, but I see now that it's funny now.
This may surprise some people, but I've always wanted to dye my hair. Not weird and crazy stuff, such as dying all of it a vibrant blue. Oh no, just the ends. Dip-dying they call it. Now I was going to do it last summer. The ends of my hair were going purple. Well, my mom told me to ask my dad.
Usually when that happens I say, "No way!" and it never happens. Well, this time I wanted it so bad that I was willing to risk his wrath. So I asked him. He said no.
I waited until October. Then everyone left me alone in the house. I'd been researching ways to color my hair without having to get it done professionally or permanently, and I liked the chalk method the best. So I chalked the ends of my hair a dark ocean blue. No one really noticed, since my hair is dark brown. But the next time I dyed my hair, I used food coloring--grass green. Guess who's parents were not happy when they got home. Uh-huh...mine. My mom told me that if it didn't wash out, I'd have to cut it off. Thank God it washed out, but I was nevertheless upset about my failed attempts at separating myself from my parents' conservative standards.
Now such a small thing as dyeing your hair is something that's easily laughed off, but sometimes, as teenagers, we disagree on even bigger things...relationships, dress code, friends, habits, language, you name it. Every teen struggles with it. We often get punished for acting on what we believe in.
There was a girl I know who wasn't supposed to text a certain guy because his parents didn't want him texting girls. Well, he started paying for his own phone so he could set his own rules. So they started texting again. Apparently he was under the misconception that he actually got to make his own rules. She, ultimately, paid the price for their decisions.
It seems that some teenagers' parents will just roll with their kids, but others won't. They insist upon keeping tight rules until the kids move out of the house. I wonder which kids end up appreciating their parents more; the ones whose parents let them do almost whatever, or the kids whose parents keep them on a short lead all their growing up years. I know some kids that can't wait until they move out and get their own lives. I also know kids that have stayed with their parents until they're 25. In both instances the house rules were pretty strict, but in the latter case the kids ended up having a lot of the same standards as the parents. Why does this happen? Do we all have to agree with our parents all the time? If not, how do we coexist until we can split off? If I knew the answers to these questions, I'd tell you.
I think all teenagers that read this will be nodding their heads in agreement when I say there really is no option other than to just submit. Some more grudgingly than others, but in the end, if we want to make it out alive without hating our parents or vice versa, we really do have to submit.
What do you think?
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