Growing Years Essay

People come and people go, moments are gone through and experiences are created. What only remains are memories ,and for that reason these growing years are considered to be golden. Growing up is the most important aspect of an individual’s life as it determines on their state of mind and how they look at life when they are old enough. Some go through a hard time whereas some may just cruise through a good life. Life is definitely a long journey but how we go about it is up to us, we see a lot of what life has to offer us at the time of childhood and teenage years. A lot of attractions and distractions, basically the good things and the bad and how these influence us. I have gone through different situations in my life, have had to make pretty tough choices ,but one of the best things I’ve learnt from these growing years is that your life is never at a stand still even when you think it is. The modern world has loads to offer teenagers like me. But at the same time I would like to include myself to agree on the fact that growing up as a person from within isn’t an easy task. I’ve found myself in different instances at a stage where I don’t seem to be agreeing with my parents. Well obviously my mind is developing and I have opinions of my own. This did lead into quarrels at times, its not that I may necessarily be wrong but I don’t think anyone’s parents would like their child to not agree with them on any aspect. The solution that I found to this problem was to be more understanding to thoughts and opinions that people shared with me. I could consider myself lucky to go on that path because I’ve come across quite a few people who have thought in another sense and are perhaps now leading messed up lives at home and away. But then again that’s all part of growing up, it could be scary at times but life has much more to offer than just a scare. My growing up like anyone else’s has its own ups and downs, but lucky for me I’ve learnt from my older brother’s experiences and have been cautious into not making the same mistakes as he has made. We come across many friends in this period of life, many come, couple of them remain in our present time but only some or none remain as you move on all the way. Yes when we’re young we’re all joyful and think that nothing can ever affect our friendship and lifestyle. But what we forget is that those who are surrounding us are growing up too, and they begin to think differently and that’s what fade’s them away from us. No doubt that I’ve learnt quite a lot from my friends but one regret would be there that some of them aren’t present in the bonds of friendship around me. Due to all the distractions that growing up has had on me, I’ve had a conflict with education and living reality itself. I guess I was just taking it too easy and was playing around with the responsibilities that were put upon me. Each year that you grow certain tasks are handed to you, be it from your parents or life itself. Whereas at the same time certain things are expected from you. I am quite sure that I personally never was in favour of this. Probably that could’ve been one of the reasons I quarreled with my folks. I guess I just couldn’t live up to the expectations. For instance, when I was out with my friends I had to be home by a certain time. I thought of this as reasonable to an extent but sometimes I went over my curfew. Obviously this wasn’t acceptable from my parents as it was heading me towards indiscipline. I always thought that a couple of years back I was invincible and nothing but good things could come out of what I was doing, basically I was happy in satisfying myself. Therefore I guess I was looking for some space of my own which my parents weren’t willing to give me at that point of time which would be my early teenage years. But now I realize that all I was doing was just neglecting my tasks and duties. Life cannot be lived with one owns satisfaction and happiness, its also about sacrifice, sacrifice that my parents have made in order to help me live a good life, as they think of my future and happiness before their own and perhaps I have to carry out these values to a family of my own. But yea I was too young then and still am now but I can certainly say that I’m in a better sense of mind to understand these things now. For this reason now I understand why my parents decided to give me this space now as I could use it more rightly. I’ve been infatuated with material things and have gotten lost in the unreal world of dreams and fantasies. More importantly my teenage years brought about certain feelings and emotions in me that made me interact with the opposite sex. Definitely this is a normal feeling and there’s nothing wrong with it. Going on dates and having serious relationships with girls was another aspect of my growing up. This perhaps made me well versed with the word â€Å"love† but what I’ve experienced with most girls was just infatuation and a phase that eventually had to fade away. This all is a part of growing up, but when it begins to interfere with your personal life or becomes a part of your personal life then I guess things just seem to be all messed up. Your moods and attitudes can easily alter at any given moment. In my case I could see this coming and still couldn’t take control of it. A really funny situation I guess for many but for me it was just a result of getting too involved in something that never was. I devoted a large amount of my time on telephones and going out which in the end added up to nothing. While making hasty decisions I never really thought twice or overlooked at what I was doing after a while. The mess began to add up and soon I found myself lagging behind in stuff that really mattered for me as a person as I didn’t give much attention to it previously. I still do mostly all these things but within boundaries and don’t make it control my lifestyle as now I perhaps am in control of things and myself. Opening myself up as a person was never a problem but opening up to the wrong people was a mistake that I constantly committed and trusting the wrong people too was involved in this. In a way I remain happy at the fact that I’ve gone through experiences such as these at a young age, as it keeps me prepared for the future. Neglecting my duties as a growing child ,I constantly came across a lot of troubles ,this included studies ,social life etc. There came times when my parents were really unhappy with me and my future remained a question mark in their minds as it built a lot of tension within them. But what I’m grateful about is that they never lost faith in me and they constantly always explained to me about what was right and always heard my side of the story too. Perhaps because of their love and affection it was a quick process for me to realize my mistakes and undo my way of thinking. I’ve at times tried to make my brother as my idle and live the way he did, in a quite reserved but jovial way. There have been instances where I just wanted to be in my brother’s shoes as I felt that he handled himself quite well while he was growing up. According to me he did everything at the right time and that’s why he enjoyed quite a bit. But I can’t escape the fact that him n me are two different personalities and we just have to be our own people. I hear from a lot of people who are elder to me, that my age is the best as I don’t have to worry about a lot of stuff. It brings upon confusion to me as I think the responsibilities that are on me ar en’t too easy to fulfill though they’re necessary. But as a growing child, I explored a lot that perhaps people my age wouldn’t. Main reason for this being that I was quite curious and being the youngest in my family always accustomed me to what elders usually do and how they behave. It was serious conflict as one hand I was neglecting my given duties and on the other hand I intended on doing things that I wasn’t capable of. Eventually I realize that being older than I already am isn’t an easy task either and probably when I do come to that age I would wish to be where I am right now. Keeping that in mind, I’ve experienced times that I’ve wished and wanted to act older than I already am. But what I was leaving behind only I know. That of being a kid and enjoying the best of what it has to offer. Being a kid or a teenager, I always hated to lose and I still do, be it anything perhaps at studies or at sport, or losing friends. But while growing up you’ve to accept to lose at times and you’ve to be open to that fact. Understanding that I guess has helped me into not being stuck up and has helped me in growing further as a person. In my years of growing up I have come across many instances that I’ve witnessed people breaking up their relationships with each other just over meaningless arguments. Having fights is normal but it goes over limit when it starts effecting the way two people think about each other. There has to be space for understanding certain things as every person has his/her own opinions over matters. But many yet remain oblivious to this. That’s why perhaps it is easy to ruin things but hard to keep it together. I sometimes sit to think about most of those teenagers who have slit their wrists and committed suicide in depression, well in their case they never liked losing either and resorted into ending their life. I can probably relate to some teenager problems considering I’m in the same age group and perhaps have gone through the same at some stage, but my upbringing has excluded the thought of suicide from me. Everything has to come to an end at one point in time and that refers to our lives as well, so we should wait until then. That’s why we teenagers are always told that there’s a time for everything. In my times of growing up, I’ve had a lot of fun even through all the hardships that have come along my way. Going to gigs and parties with friends was no more of an exciting thing to me as before. Since I’ve cut down on that there’s more value to it now then there was before. One of the most important tasks that I’ve learnt in my journey of growing up is setting priorities. Something I wasn’t good at doing so sometime back. There are loads of distractions available to get you off your way but if you have your priorities set out I don’t think you could go off track. Part of becoming an adult brings a lot of confusion in our minds. There come times when people have asked me what I’ve wanted to be when I grow up, and I’m left with no answer. I realize I can’t be young all my life but it just seems with all the competition around I’m growing up much faster than I should be. But that’s how this modernized world works, and I could probably deny the fact but cant hide from it. Accepting this I’ve got an ambition, something that I hope to become and achieve. But I realize that this task isn’t easy for some people and this has helped me into understanding the problems that some teenagers go through. They cant deal with the pressure and therefore breakdown into depression. Understanding aspects like these and looking into my own life, it has been quite easy to give way to other people’s opinions and sometimes accept what someone else says on top of your own word. Being unselfish is a part of growing up too. These values instilled in me thankfully is to my advantage and would perhaps benefit me in my future. There sure have been times when I just have been fed up of happenings around me and wished that everything should just stop. At the end of things I still would have to get on with my life and deal with my problems as that’s part of growing up. I do wish that sometimes things should be quite different from what they are, but then if life had to be so predictable there wouldn’t be any fun left in life itself. Believing in something of this sort has made me want to enjoy life as it comes even through its good times and bad. Understanding that behind every face there’s a story, and that’s why some people act in the manner that they do, we have to be open to whatever this life has to offer us. Growing up isn’t an easy task but how would we ever know where our silver lining lies if we don’t want to grow up. These growing years are considered golden as they’re times once lived they can never come back. We have the ability at times like these to make the most of our lives and should definitely use it. We never stop learning and that’s why everyday we look at our life through a different light. Every year that I grow it brings me closer to my adult age and cuts off a year from my life. There surely is a time for everything and in life there are no short cuts to that. From now on I would like to take things as they come and enjoy myself under those means. Therefore I would like to live my life to the maximum level and in the right manner. I’m still growing and s o far the journey has been incredible.