Kids vs. Teenagers

I’m not a kid anymore. Kids don’t have any responsibilities, nor do they have worries about how they look, nor do they worry about school. Kids can play outside, in the garden. They go on adventures in the bushes near their house. It seems like a really big jungle, though it’s just bushes of five by six metres. Kids can also draw the most ugly drawings in the world and still everyone will say ‘Oh, how lovely, darling!’. People will appreciate the fact that the kids are drawing at all. Kids hold their pens and pencils in a really weird way, but no one cares because they’re still kids.

Kids can also sing along with any song they want, even though it’s out of tune. They don’t have shame. They’re not embarrassed. People will say it’s cute and will smile affectionate if kids say the words of the song wrong. They will nod along with the song, still smiling affectionate while the kid is totally messing up the song. It doesn’t matter. It’s still a kid. Kids are also very honest about everything. They say whatever comes to their mind, without really thinking about it. Kids are rude sometimes, too. They say things that aren’t really appropriate to say in certain situations. But they’re kids, they don’t know any better, so it doesn’t really matter.

When kids dance along with songs it is considered funny and creative. Even though the kid isn’t very rhythmical and doesn’t dance very well, the kid is a very good dancer. Sometimes kids lie down on the floor just in the middle of a dance. But it doesn’t really matter because they’re kids.
Kids can make a mess. Of their room, of someone else’s room, of the kitchen table; they can even ‘accidently’ draw on their mother’s desk. It doesn’t matter! No one minds them doing it! Because they’re kids. They will still have to learn stuff, they don’t know everything just yet. Experience will teach them how to behave.

Kids can have the biggest arguments with their friends. They can shout at each other, stamp with their feet, they can even hit each other or kick each other. They will walk away angrily and as soon as they enter their own home again they will have forgotten about the argument. The next day they play with their friends again as if nothing has happened the night before. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Kids don’t understand.

Kids can watch cartoons. Yes, because they’re kids. Cartoons are meant for kids, not for adults. Kids can watch cartoons, they can sing along with the theme songs and they can even shout at the TV when something’s wrong. They’re kids, don’t mind them.

Kids can go to school. Most kids. There they learn how to read and write, and how to behave amongst others. They learn by playing little games with their friends. They learn by listening to stories. They learn by playing in the classroom. Kids like school, school’s fun. At school you have friends, and everybody is nice to each other, and you can play all day long, and it doesn’t even matter, because you’re still a kid!

A kid can be itself. It can do whatever it wants, it can laugh at whatever it wants, it can dance whenever it wants, it can eat whenever it wants, it can sleep whenever it wants, it can sing whenever it wants, it can play whenever it wants and it can cry whenever it wants. It’s still a kid.

I’m a teenager. And a teenager has responsibilities. It has to finish its own homework. It has to prepare its own lunch. It has to make sure it will be in time at school.
A teenager can’t just sing along to a song. If it’s out of tune, everyone will laugh. When it misses a word of the lyrics, or it just doesn’t know the lyrics, it can’t just ramble something. People will laugh at the teenager for that.

A teenager can’t just be honest about everything. That would be rude and arrogant. A teenager would be considered a bitch or a jerk when (s)he is being honest about something. A teenager can’t just be honest. It should lie about the crazy new hairstyle of their friend. It should lie about the nasty food your friend’s mom has cooked. It should know what to say, and when to say it.

Though a teenager does go to dance clubs more often than a kid, it can’t just dance along however it wants. There’s certain dance codes to every dance it’s doing. A teenager has dignity, it can’t just make a weird move and walk away with everyone forgetting about it. Everyone will remember the one weird move the teenager made, and will bully it forever, afterwards. That’s how it works.
A teenager can’t just make a mess of anything it wants. Its room has to be clean and empty, so that it can easily do homework without snapping out of concentration all the time. It has to have a neat room for any potential visitors, if not, it will look ridiculous and other people will be talking about the mess the teenager made. If it spills a bit of ink on their desk, the desk is forever ruined, and ‘what a shame, it was such a beautiful desk’.

A teenager can’t have arguments with friends. If a teenager has an argument with a friend, it won’t be as easily forgotten. The teenagers will swear at each other, and say rude things. They will insult each other, but they won’t kick or hit. The kicking and hitting is not necessary. The swearing and the insults will hurt enough. Unfortunately, the swearing and the insults won’t be forgotten. Even when a teenager doesn’t mean what it said, it will be forgiven, but not forgotten. There will always be a little crack in the friendship from then on.

When a teenager watches a cartoon, it will be considered childish and immature. ‘Aren’t you a bit too old for this stuff?’ they will ask. But cartoons are so much fun to watch! A person never gets too old for a good laugh about a cartoon. But others won’t understand. They will laugh at the teenager and they will always remember how childish the teenager still is.

A teenager also has to go to school. There they have friends. Friends who pretend to like the teenager. They laugh with the teenager, and copy its homework. That’s thrilling, exciting, but not allowed. That’s why they do it. Because it’s not allowed. The teenager gets confronted. It has to smoke and drink, in order to be cool and to be part of the group. The teenager doesn’t want to smoke nor drink, but the teenager decides to anyway, otherwise it will be all alone for the rest of its life. And come on, smoking and drinking isn’t that bad, right? All friends do it too.

A teenager can’t be itself. A teenager can’t just burst out laughing because of nothing. It cannot just dance; that would look ridiculous. It can’t just eat whatever it wants, because then it will get fat. Insecurities strike. It can’t just sleep whenever it wants because it has responsibilities and it has to finish its homework in time. A teenager can’t just sing whenever it wants, that’d be inappropriate and stupid. It can’t just play whenever it wants, because there’s more to life than just playing. You have to reach goals. You have to have a higher rank than others. A teenager can’t just cry. It would be embarrassing and weird to randomly cry, even though crying can be very good sometimes.

A teenager can’t make itself, it is made by others. 


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