Angsty Teens; part 2

"Rant about how some teenagers see themselves, and how other teenagers and society perceives them. How their distorted sense of things can lead to a shock once they get into the real world, etc." -Anon

Now to finish up this quote. See that second sentence? That's what we'll be talking about today.

As late and great Albert Einstein (I've heard he was pretty smart) once said "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." And Hell if that doesn't apply especially to teenagers.

Don't get me wrong, teenagers can be intelligent also. I could think of a handful of males and females at my school -- or even the district -- that I could confidently call intelligent. To put that in perspective, there are a lot more than "a handful" of people in the school district. The majority of them, to me, qualify as complete and utter idiots. Offended? Check out this post.

That being said, even those intelligent are adolescent. "But, Kyle," you'll say as you always do when you want to contradict me, "that has nothing to do with being smart or not." To which I will tell you that you are wrong. Plain wrong. In fact, you're so wrong, it's kosher.

Let's get some fact straight: teenagers' brains are developing. Everything is getting all funky -- hormones bouncing around, body parts randomly swelling, grey matter just sorta leaving -- and the teenager doesn't know what to do. On one end, their peers and the rest of society is looking at them and urging them into one direction, while on the other, their own body is like "LET ME FORNICATE WITH EVERY THING I CAN GET MY GENITALS ON!" This all become the biologically equivalent of letting a kitten play with a ball of string for a few hours.

"What does all of this mean, Kyle?!" Fear not. I will guide you. You are safe inside my virtual arms.

This means that the developing human has no clue as to what s/he should be doing. It's like a second birth, but with more acne. The adolescent has absolutely no idea which side to follow. Luckily, their body does. It's sure of itself, so its argument is a bit more persuasive in the ears of the teen. They'll be more inclined to follow its ways. Some will resist partially, others with throw it off, but most won't.

Just what is their body telling them? That they are a damn Superman, but from Earth. If they could, they'd be shooting lasers and flying around everywhere. I know I would. And I'm a teenager. Point made.

Now then, time for a little math. Take one delusional human being, add natural parental sheltering, and through in a pinch of noticeable-scarcity-of-any-educational-system-teaching-them-generally-useful-skills, and you've just made the perfect equation for a disgustingly colored streak on the back of society's tighty whities.

As far as teenagers know, someone will always be around to pick them up when they fall. Here's a nice little example:

Math teacher: "Oh, you failed that test? Don't worry; I have some make-up work that you can do. You'll pass next time.
Police officer: "Oh, you failed that test. Looks like you're going to jail for driving under the influence. Maybe next time you'll pass."

See the problem here? Throughout their lives, teenagers are coddled (even when threatened otherwise) and they just don't know what to do when they emerge from the second womb.

Of course, the only way to know is through experience, so it's really a vicious circle.

Either way, teenagers have no clue what they're doing. Though it can be slowly taught, it isn't. Shame on everyone.