There is a time is for speaking, and there is a time for silence. Twenty years ago those of us who were under 18, we didn’t mean anything, in many places we still don’t. Most people would listen to the voice of someone who calls him or herself an adult over that of someone they call a child, us, and those of us who aren’t 18. But do they really think we change that much? Do we lose all of who we are as children to become an adult? Is that what we sacrifice?
Many of us are different going through individual situations. I could say many things, I could say I understand. But I don’t. I can’t. Not without talking to be people going through these other things. Those of us who are “naïve” those of us who are “children”, what we face everyday, on the battle front of growing up, that is something only one of us could understand. Those who went before us, they can remember but do they live it now? Can they delve deep enough to find that once more? We are young, but we are not innocent, we may be naive, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be hurt. Do people really think our pain is less? Is it? Or is it just they don’t feel it and we do? We live life everyday, vulnerable, everyday we rise, everyday we fall.
Everyday we learn something, or maybe we don’t, we can’t or won’t, or don’t know how. Most of us know who we are now, but don’t know how to show us. Actually no, I know who I am or who I am now, but I don’t know who I will be, or can be. Those of us, children, how many are actually really still a child? There are plenty who aren’t really children, they aren’t innocent, they aren’t stupid, they aren’t immature, we are a group of different people, we are each of us somebody, those who can relate, we are teens, not kids, not children.
A lot know what it is like to be hurt, and to hurt, a lot of us know what its like to be angry, and anger, many of us know what its like to cry, and make others cry, so what really makes us that much different from those who call themselves adults? It certainly isn’t feeling or us being to young to have emotions.
Are we really being heard? Maybe in some places, but are everyone else trying to understand us? Are they interested in what its like to go live our lives. This isn’t any one race, these are people all of them. Not Latino or black or white or any group, we are kids or teens first. We are all human beings first before anything else, but we do have something in common , and that should unite us not divide us. It shouldn’t matter what color or race you are, or who you look like. What should matter who you are inside and your story. Too many people judge teens and kids, for what they see TV, or what people say.
One of the reasons teens can be really emotional is because it’s hard to know where to fit in, where to go, what to wear, whom to like, who to be friends with. In Junior High and High school these things are our lives, when you are 14 or 15 or 16, either way despite the pain you feel, despite the joy you have, we are still children in the eyes of most of the world. In some ways those things are all we have, pride, respect, friendship, our own hierarchies, they are something to strive for, some way to be worthy. If you don’t know who you are, or aren’t sure, it isn’t easy to be confident, to believe, too many do things they wouldn’t normally to be someone, to be confident.
Growing up, means every day we are fighting, whether its for where we live, what group we are apart of, what school we go to, who we hang out with, basically our beliefs, our feelings and thoughts. Some of us fight these battles in different ways, some of us want to know who we are, some of us already know-most of us just think we know and maybe we are right, but maybe also we are not. Some battles are on the street, some battles are at school, some are at home all of them involve something that is inside of us. Some part of us reacts, because it means something. Those who aren’t always looked down on, those who do have freedom to be, they don’t realize how much we have or how little. Its easy to reach out for someone and not have them be there, its easy to reach out, needing someone and hold who ever reaches back close to us, its just as easy to push them away because we are tired of waiting for someone to be there. I don’t understand why people who aren’t me, can say no, you don’t understand, you aren’t hurting, you are just a child. A lot of kids and teens are misunderstood, but are we really to blame for doing what we do when we don’t know how to express ourselves because the rest of the world has forgotten how to listen? I think its time for those of us who are children because we are under 18, to speak up. Tell our stories, speak our truths, and let everyone know that we are somebody, that we have voices of our own. Its time to be heard. One voice at a time.