- Jan 9, 2001
- 7,572
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Well, after responses to threads I've had in the past, and threads of some other high school-aged members here, I think it's safe to say the response has been pretty uniform: "Oh, you're XX years old, it can't be that big of a deal. Go out and have fun, that's all you need to worry about now." It's never taken seriously. This is the case in person, too. Any adult will pat you on the back, with sort of a "just you wait" type comment.
I guess this raises the question that many 9th grade English teachers bring up when the unit on Romeo & Juliet is about to begin: Do you think teenage love is possible? Don't get me wrong, I don't want to over-dramatize any particular situation. Many young people, myself included, have gone through countless bouts of "I can't live without her!", only to get over it as quickly as we got into it. Our age group is comprised of the kings and queens of mellowdrama. Blame it on our hormones. However, I personally feel that I'm mature for my age, and often don't understand how my romance-related pain is any less warranted than any adult's.
Now, I don't claim to have experienced this sensation and emotion known as love. Although, with my current situation, a girl and I who are now separated by nearly an entire country of geography, I feel as though this situation is definitely at least as close to love as I have come. Sometimes, I think it is love. Other times, I brush that notion away. I'm an extremely emotional person, and I've let my imagination blow up a mere infatuation to a whole new magnitude. After all, as I've been told so many times, I'm only 16. 16 year-olds can't fall in love. We don't know what love is. Right?
I understand that I, along with all other high schoolers, have yet to experience much of what life has to offer. I realize that ten years from now, I'll be able to experience such emotions, including certain pain, that are not even comprehendable to me now. The proof of this lies in comparing myself now to when I was even, say, 14. I had times of despair when I was 14 where I thought my world was caving in, and I look back now at the problems I had then and realize that they weren't nearly as overwhelming as they seemed at the time. And that's only two years.
However, I do believe teenaged love is possible. I do believe that people of my age are, at times, capable of realizing emotions that normally don't come until later. It's no different than anything else, a virtuostic musician-prodigy, a kid who skips several grades in school, they're rare but they can happen. Sometimes people have grown up in certain areas sooner than you'd expect. And besides: Pain, emotional pain, I feel, is just as real at 14 as it is at 16 as it is 30.
I heard a less eloquent way of putting this, it's coarse, but in my mind rings true: "I'm 16. Now remember, that's just a f#cking number."
I guess this raises the question that many 9th grade English teachers bring up when the unit on Romeo & Juliet is about to begin: Do you think teenage love is possible? Don't get me wrong, I don't want to over-dramatize any particular situation. Many young people, myself included, have gone through countless bouts of "I can't live without her!", only to get over it as quickly as we got into it. Our age group is comprised of the kings and queens of mellowdrama. Blame it on our hormones. However, I personally feel that I'm mature for my age, and often don't understand how my romance-related pain is any less warranted than any adult's.
Now, I don't claim to have experienced this sensation and emotion known as love. Although, with my current situation, a girl and I who are now separated by nearly an entire country of geography, I feel as though this situation is definitely at least as close to love as I have come. Sometimes, I think it is love. Other times, I brush that notion away. I'm an extremely emotional person, and I've let my imagination blow up a mere infatuation to a whole new magnitude. After all, as I've been told so many times, I'm only 16. 16 year-olds can't fall in love. We don't know what love is. Right?
I understand that I, along with all other high schoolers, have yet to experience much of what life has to offer. I realize that ten years from now, I'll be able to experience such emotions, including certain pain, that are not even comprehendable to me now. The proof of this lies in comparing myself now to when I was even, say, 14. I had times of despair when I was 14 where I thought my world was caving in, and I look back now at the problems I had then and realize that they weren't nearly as overwhelming as they seemed at the time. And that's only two years.
However, I do believe teenaged love is possible. I do believe that people of my age are, at times, capable of realizing emotions that normally don't come until later. It's no different than anything else, a virtuostic musician-prodigy, a kid who skips several grades in school, they're rare but they can happen. Sometimes people have grown up in certain areas sooner than you'd expect. And besides: Pain, emotional pain, I feel, is just as real at 14 as it is at 16 as it is 30.
I heard a less eloquent way of putting this, it's coarse, but in my mind rings true: "I'm 16. Now remember, that's just a f#cking number."