Have you ever felt like life was a dull and colourless blur? Have you felt like everyone around you seems to be having so much more fun than you are? Have you felt like you were wasting your teenage years on seemingly boring pursuits?
Well, this feeling is actually more common than you would think. Our teenage years are often depicted as one of the most exciting and eventful parts of our lives. Every show and movie that we watch on television seems to reinforce this notion. After all, if teenage life and adolescence were not such interesting periods, there would not be so many shows and movies about them in the first place. Similarly, our friends also seem to be constantly posting pictures and videos to their social media platforms showing them travelling to the most gorgeous cities, or enjoying eventful parties.
When we take all this information and compare it with what we experience in our own lives, it can often seem like we should be doing and experiencing more things than we already are. Comparison is the source of most of the dissatisfaction we experience. The truly frightening aspect of comparison is that we may rarely realise how destructive it can be.
For instance, take the characters who are depicted in these very shows that feature teenagers. The characters often have a very conventionally attractive appearance and they wear striking clothes. It is so easy to quickly start comparing ourselves with these characters without realising that most of the actors who play teenagers are not younger than 20 years of age. Additionally, these characters are played by professional actors who have entire teams of people that manage their hair, makeup and clothing. Thus, a simple comparison quickly leads to an insecurity when the comparison was never fair in the first place!
Life, especially our period of adolescence, is a deeply personal experience. Our growth and experiences during this period are just as unique as we are. While we can share memories and relate to each other, we will almost never have the same kind of life with someone depicted on television or social media. Recently, I discovered that our brain does not finish developing fully until our mid-twenties. It is no wonder, then, that we can feel so displaced in the meantime. We cannot expect to live a perfect life and have amazing experiences when we have not even finished developing as yet.
It is easy to convince ourselves that we must know, feel and experience everything when we are young, especially when the media convinces us that we should. It is important to remember that the shows and movies we watch are carefully curated with the main goal of simply entertaining us. We must never use it as a reference for living.
Instead connect with real people. If you feel like your life is dull, reach out to people and make new friends. Try joining new clubs or strike up a conversation with the adults in your life to see what their real, adolescent experience was like. Life is an interesting mystery that becomes richer and more interesting the more we delve into it. If we try to unravel it all in a short period of time, then all we will be left with is a long road ahead of us with nothing new to learn or try. So, choose to live your life at your own pace and your own style, and every memory that is meant for you will eventually find you in your journey.
