It’s tough growing up. For some children and young people it’s really tough. Made harder when people tell you that “School years are the best years of your life”. Here are some reasons why if you’re a parent you shouldn’t say this and if you’re a young person you should read on and hang in there. If you are having a tough time and are told this is the best it’s going to get, then it can make you feel that there’s really no hope for the future. If this is the best then life just gets tougher from here on in, Right?
Wrong. It’s just not true! Sure, adults look wistfully back to the time when they had no mortgage, responsibilities, job etc but they look back with rose tinted specs. They forget the way that kids can be really mean at times and there was probably a time when they were out of favour, or never as much in favour as they would have liked. They forget the raging hormones and the fact that some days life really does feel too hard or everything is too sad or too angry. They forget they didn’t have the benefit of the life experience they’ve now got and that making decisions about what they should do is a big deal. They forget that they didn’t have the independence they have now, because of money, permission and even mode of transport. They forget that there is always the battle with the parents between growing up too fast and not growing up fast enough.
So if you’re feeling like your childhood/teenagehood is not all its cracked up to be, you’re right. And it does get better. Sometime soon you’ll be able to do what you like because you make the decisions about your life, without needing to check with someone else or get their permission. Sometime soon you’ll be able to make friends with people who are like you, and people who like you for who you are. Sometime soon you’ll find what it is that you really love and get out there and do it, instead of just having to settle for dreaming about it whilst you sit in another lesson you just don’t care about. It will come quicker than you think, and having hope for the future will actually make the present feel better now. So hang in there, believe in the future and in it being better and then work to make it happen. There are some things you can control after all – and that’s to make the future the best years of your life.
Believe. Be brave. Have hope.