Sturggles of Teenager

Do you know if teenagers have their own struggles? Teenagers have a lot of struggles,
starting from the easy one until the hard one. The teenage year is the most awkward and
frustrating in someone’s life. When I scroll through my social media, there are many teens
share the struggles they are experiencing or have gone through. As a teenager, I felt
them.
According to WHO, adolescents are the population in the age range of 10–19 years.
Adolescence is a transitional period or transition period from childhood to adulthood. As
we know, teenagers identic with self-discovery. Therefore, teenagers often have mood
swings that play a role in establishing moods. In addition, there are several struggles for
teenagers besides dealing with mood swings.

1. Lectures and nagging

When we make a mistake, our parents always lecture us. Lectures and nagging
don’t necessarily come as wisdom words. For us, it’s like listening to a broken
record. We know for sure that parents mean well and care for us, but it still annoys
us. We have entered the period of transition from children to adults, where we
feel we have enough knowledge and maturity. So, we don’t want anyone to tell us
what to do.
I once woke up late and my mom nagged me nonstop. It was so annoying,
already late, plus my mom was nagging. What a shitty morning. Nagging in the
morning really ruins the mood for the whole day. I know I’m late and my mom’s
intentions are good so that I won’t be late in the future. However, it’s still
annoying. It’s like listening to a broken record on repeat.
Another experience when my room was messy. I had planned when I should
clean up my room and what I should do afterward. Then my mom said “clean up
your room immediately, put all the clothes in the closet, throw away the trash,
blablabla”. I knew I didn’t need to be told. I already knew. That’s right, I felt that
I had grown up and had knowledge. I felt that I could plan what I should do. If mom
told me what to do after I had planned it, I felt annoyed and didn’t want to do it.

2. Caring about what others think and say

As a teenager, we often care what others think that makes us insecure. That’s
because, as teenagers, we want to connect with others. No teenager wants to be
alone. However, if we are constantly concerned about what others think or say, it
can wear us down because we can’t live up to their expectations.
If we think too much about what they say to us, it can cause a drop in self-
confidence. We always try to achieve something so that others don’t say bad things
about us. We don’t need to be like that. No matter what they say about us, we can
still live.
When I was in junior high school, people always joked by saying that I was fat.
It really impacted me. I was always insecure about dressing, always wore oversize
clothes and always tried to diet. However, my grandmother said, “Don’t diet,
you’ll be skinny when you grow up.“
Then, when I was in high school, I went through culture shock and, sure enough,
I lost weight, not as fat as when I was in middle school. However, I had a tan.
 When I was in 10th grade, my friend said that I was black. Yes, of course, that
made me insecure again. I always think about the negative words that people
think. So I tried so hard not to get negative words and to be recognized. It was very
tiring. I was really afraid of being judged. However, over time, I realized and
attached the mindset that everyone always has their own advantages and
disadvantages. After that, I can be confident in what I wear, and I can express
myself without fear that people will judge me. I no longer care about other
people’s negative words. This is my life, this is my choice. I am free to do anything
as long as it does not harm others.
In high school, I had a friend who was always insecure. She always worried
about what other people were saying. It turned out that she was always said to be
fat and ugly by her ex. So she went on a diet, only eating brown rice, doing planks
and taking whitening supplements. Really, it made my heart hurt.
We can’t control what other people say and do. But we also have to be able not
to accept it. I know it’s very difficult, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. Sometimes
we need to close our ears to make our lives happy.

3. Academic pressure
Every year the curriculum changes and academic standards are raised. Whether
we want to or not, we have to push ourselves to pass. Not only that, there are
some parents who require their children to get high grades in academia. Inevitably,
you have to push yourself even harder. Especially for teenagers who find it difficult
to thrive in an academic environment. It’s quite exhausting and depressing.
I experienced culture shock when I first entered high school. I felt that the
curriculum and teaching in high school was really hard. I was stressed and
depressed because, in my first year in high school, my grades were terrible, and
the assignments piled up. Until I got magic because I often skipped meals and my
hair became thin because it fell out badly. My parents did not say openly that they
wanted my grades to be high, but I knew they did. I once read a teenager’s vent on
a platform. He has talent at sports but no ability at academics. But his parents
don’t support him in sports. His parents want him to be good at academics. Things
like this are very depressing.
For parents, we hope you can support us no matter what happens in our
academic world. Not being good at academics doesn’t mean we don’t have talent
in non-academics.

4. Feeling clueless and pressured about the future

The last year of high school is a stressful time for teenagers. There are many
questions from teachers, parents and friends about where they will go to college,
majors etc. We are very afraid of life after high school, about the wrong major,
living away from parents and the outside world or parents’ requests that are
against our wishes. Not to mention if parents talk about the economy in front of us.
It’s more stressful. We really struggle to decide on it. Whatever the decision is, it
is all our responsibility to determine the future.
When going to enter the world of college, we need a lot of information. But if
there is a lot of information, we get confused about deciding. It is at times like this
that communication between parents and children is needed. I am a teenager who
lacks communication with my parents, so discussing things like this is very difficult.
I only look for information on the internet and consult a counselor teacher.
Because I think parents don’t need to know my plans, let them know the results
 only. But that is wrong. Whatever we still need to communicate, especially
problems like this, about what the cost of living will be, what the environment is.

5. Friendship
Sometimes friendship problems also make us stressed. In a group of friends
there will definitely be arguments or disputes caused by internal emotions,
romance, jealousy, or even betrayal. This problem is common among most
teenagers. Although we. Don’t want it, don’t know how we always face this
problem. But it could be that this problem could continue into bullying and
intimidation.
Friendship problems in adolescence are like daily food. When I was in junior
high school, I thought that talking badly behind a friend’s back was a bad thing.
However, the more I make friends, the more people I meet with various traits. I
think friendship in adolescence is really complicated. Talking about a friend’s bad
things to other friends is not uncommon anymore. I have a friend who is willing to
sell other people’s stories so that he can make friends. Because nowadays, talking
about other people’s bad things is very flattering. It’s hard to find real friends. This
is one form of betrayal in friendship.
This is worse. There was someone who told me that her close friend had the
heart to spread false stories about her. I thought, what makes her have the heart
to do this if not because of jealousy and spite? When I heard about this I was really
speechless. I just found something like that. She shouldn’t have done that. Another
story, many friends spread their own friend’s disgrace. If you have been given
trust, you should keep it. Nothing is gained by spreading your own friend’s
disgrace. We always think “what’s wrong? Did I do something bad, so he did this to
me?” and if it keeps popping up in the head it can cause pain. Friends like this
should be cut off, because it brings bad effects.

6. First crush and Puppy love

Adolescence is a time when sexual hormones have begun to mature,
characterized by feelings of attraction to the opposite sex. Having your first crush
and feeling puppy love is really thrilling. When we have our first crush, it feels
really amazing, mixed into one. Happy, confused, sad. Confused about what to do.
Confess or not. When I had my first crush, I always wanted to be around him but
was also scared. Teenagers still have unstable emotions, always want to be
together but are afraid that the person knows that we have feelings for them. I
told myself that I should keep these feelings and not tell others. These feelings are
difficult to contain, and I told my friend with the promise that my friend should not
tell the person. However, my friend reneged and eventually told the person so that
the person stayed away. It made me sad and angry. Then, when I like someone
again, I won’t tell anyone, because I’m afraid the person will stay away.
If you like someone, make a movement, show him that you really like him. It’s
okay to make the first move, especially for girls. Everyone has the right to express
their own feelings. No need to be afraid of rejection. If you have decided to like
someone, you must be brave enough to face rejection. Liking someone does not
mean you have to have him.
People say puppy love is a temporary love that has no effect and is easily
forgotten. But in my opinion, it’s all wrong. Puppy love will always have its own
place in the heart. No matter whether the experience received is good or bad. It’s
been 7 years but all the interactions, all the treatment, all the rejection,
 everything about him is still clearly visible. However, that doesn’t mean I still have
feelings for him. I just captured it. He’s my lesson.

Every teenager has their own struggles. Of all of them, mood is most often the cause.
It’s really hard to understand our moods. We ourselves sometimes feel overwhelmed.
Parents often invite teenagers to tell stories. Because if parents don’t start, we are
embarrassed to tell them what is going on. For teenagers, don’t overthink things. Do
whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t deviate from the norm. Communicate well with
your parents. Accept gracefully whatever happens in your life. Keep fighting and be
happy.
 About Me

I’m Gesha Az-zahra Salsabila, everyone call me Gesha. I was born Bandar Jaya,
Lampung. Now, i’m student of Sugar Group High School and i’ll soon graduate. I’m not
really sure if it’s my hobby, but i like cooking so much. If there is free time, I will
experiment to make food with makeshift ingredients. I also joined the cooking club.
Besides cooking, I also like reading, watching movies and listening to music. The schedule
of grade 12 students is very busy, therefore, i have rarely read and watched.
I love music so much, I always listen to music in every activity I do. I am a Swiftie. The
first Taylor Swift song I listened to was Shake it Off. My friend said, I’m a person who
easily memorizes English songs but difficult to memorize Indonesian songs.