To be a teen

To be a teen

Is to lose your sense of self

Completely.

What is right?

What is wrong?

What is cool?

Why do some feel so drawn to popularity

While others are repulsed by it?

Who are my friends?

Why do I like them?

Why do the teachers

Keep talking about "values"?

What are values?

To be a teen

Is to live in a constant state

Of questions.

Questioning yourself,

Questioning big ideas,

Questioning life,

Love,

Friendship, 

Everything in between.

To be a teen

Is to obsess

Micromanage

Over tiny things

That feel so huge -

That feel like too much

And not enough

At the same time

(Which shouldn't be possible, but is).

Crushes

Friend drama

Rumors.

To be a teen

Is to find your coping method.

Do you run to the bathroom

And cry?

Do you write

Your heart out?

Do you talk it through

Vent

Rant

To friends?

Do you chill in your basement

With a cup of tea

And a Nintendo switch?

Do you hyper-fixate

Procrastinate

Perseverate?

To be a teen

Is to decide who you are -

And then hate it

Hate you

Hate everything

And go back to the drawing board.

To be a teen

Is to cling to what you love

As it changes 

As though you are walking

The wrong way on a conveyor belt -

Fighting every step

Stubbornly insisting, No I'm right

And continuing onward.

To be a teen

Is to feel like the world hates you

Because maybe it does -

What if it does?

What if you're not good enough?

What if everyone is secretly mad at you?

What if they know something you don't?

To be a teen is

Hard

Annoying

Unpredictable

And so many more things

And yet,

Somehow,

We get beautiful adults out of this

So maybe this phase is important

After all.