adolescents

We overthink about insignificant things and we talk so, so loud on public transport. We get angry about how teachers expect us to behave like adults, yet treat us like we're 12 again. We complain and we cry, and we laugh every day. We have a burning desire to be out in the world being ourselves when in actual fact, we barely know ourselves properly just yet.

We smile at the elderly so they don't think we're thugs, and we appreciate memes the way Elizabethan's appreciated Shakespeare. We love sleeping. We love eating. We fight and we fall in love, over and over again. 

We say things we regret, and we get angry for no particular reason. We get anxious about things we shouldn't and we care far too much. We get spots and we get sad. We're extremely hormonal and in denial about that. We have so many insecurities, and we hide them away like they're dirty secrets. We don't talk about things because 'it's nothing', 'I'm okay'. We're a little too harsh on ourselves. 

We spend more time on Netflix than we do with our friends, and we're pretty happy about that. We love Social Media because it's all we know and we follow social norms and conform to trends because we fear that being different is weird. We say we hate bullies, yet find ourselves sniggering about the boy on the bus, and we laugh about things that we know we shouldn't, however, we can't help ourselves. We just want to be happy, yet we surround ourselves with people we know hurt us, and we can't help but be vulnerable to the authoritarian personalities we find ourselves surrounded by. We want to do well in life, earn lots of money, be secure, happy and go far in the world, yet we complete our homework on the morning bus and we revise for our exams the night before. 

We can't help but judge others, and we hate when people judge us. We talk about people who talk about us, and we are the peak generation of pettiness. We're passive aggressive and we're too sarcastic for our own good. We mess our bedrooms up so quickly, and I don't even think any of us know how. We idolise celebrities like they are royalty, and we can't help but compare ourselves to them. 

We wish for things we don't have, and we show a lack of appreciation for the things we do. We get angry at our parents and forget how influential they are on us. We think we know everything when we know very little and we dream about things yet show no particular effort to achieve them. We take pictures of each other so we don't forget this moment, however, then we upload them on Instagram, and delete them off our phones, to save memory.  We're vulnerable to materialism because it's all we've ever known, and we don't understand what's going on the world. We want to be positive and healthy and live the ideal life, yet we subsequently find ourselves sleeping for 12 hours any chance we get and avoiding the gym like it's hell on earth.

Although despite all this, we do try. We try to be nice people and we try to succeed. We are learning, and we are growing, and that's all we can do right now. We know we can be irritating sometimes, especially when we have our outbursts and we don't know what we're saying, and we understand that sometimes it's better to keep our mouths shut. But we're learning about life, and about what is going on around us, we know what makes us happy, and honestly, we can't wait to live.

As always, here are a few photos to summarise my week.

Thank you for reading,
J. I. Smith x