Adolescence is the Best and the Worst Time of a Person's Life

Personally, as a teenager, I would agree that 'adolescence is the best and worst time of a person's life'. But I guess the opinion differs from one individual to another when answering the question.

'Adolescence' is a period of transition between being a child and being an adult. It is basically a time when one encounters major changes of his ( the masculine term used here and henceforth is by no means a bias towards males ) life, be it emotional or physical.

When puberty strikes, one knows one is embarking on the journey into adolescence. With all the wonderful or disastrous, physical changes taking place, a whole new experience begins. If one is blessed with desirable assets, of course life would thus appear bright and warm but when cursed with not too perfect physiques, some may experience the start of worse times. This obsession with physical appearance makes one's adolescence a dreamworld or a nightmare.

Perhaps we have little control over how we look but we are breaking out of our shells and beginning to gain more control over our lives. For example, I am allowed to do some things that I want to do, go to places that I wish to go to alone or with my friends. Mother used to do everything with me and accompany me everywhere. That is freedom and nothing can be more blissful than liberty. With such freedom, one can create experiences for oneself and live life at one's own pace, according to one's expectations. To a certain degree I feel that this contributes to making 'the best time of a person's life.

However, there is a limit to how much liberty one is entitled to. Curfews are not uncommon. With liberty too, comes responsibility. One has to learn to take responsibilities and account for one's actions. That is a liability at times and life could look really bad when a great sin has been committed and none is responsible for it, except you. Despite this, however, I do not mind being responsible, really. It is just one of the little preparations I have to make for adulthood.

Adolescence is the time when you make friends, lots of them. High schools and colleges are really places where you make new acquaintances and develop friendships. To someone who is growing up, friendship can be of extreme importance and to be a teenager means having all the freedom and time to make friends. That is because a little child has not the freedom to mix around so freely and an adult would probably be too busy to really socialise and make some real friends. The good thing is that being an adolescent means stepping out of a child's world and yet being spared the sometimes vicious and calculating grown- up world where 'friends' are not what they seem.

Then again, there are drawbacks. Since everyone is vulnerable at this age, no one is spared the possibilities of getting hurt. Having that many friends may just mean getting hurt that many times. I guess that is part of growing up and we learn from it too. Such unpleasant experiences may toughen us and prepare us for the 'real' world.

The first romance may come during one's adolescence. What could be more exhilarating than having a special someone in your life. Truly that single encounter could be the height of one's teenage bliss, or yes, it could be a tragic mistake. So that is one of the risks one has to take whilst growing up, and maybe in the process, learn how to trust someone and share and care.

The worst part of it all to me personally, concerns money. Having untangled oneself from mother's apron strings, one goes to explore the world and everyone knows nothing comes free in our world. From having lunch in the campus to the dating game, we are faced with the money problem. Sometimes, our pocket money just is not enough and it is quite embarrassing to ask dad for more. Some friends I know have taken to working. That is great. They learn to be independent too. To some, being able to earn extra income in addition to dad's monthly allowance is a bonus.

Up to this point, I am sure my opinion as to whether adolescence is the best time of a person's life or the worst is quite ambivalent. That is because I feel that it is both. For every ecstatic experience one encounters, there could be a drawback and who says nothing good can come out of a bad experience? We learn from every experience, be it good or bad. With so much happening, it has got to be the most exciting stage when the best or the worst can happen.

Personally, I find adolescence the best and worst time of my life but I realise, too, that to some people, their adolescence could be more of a bed of roses and to yet others, that phase in life has shattered all their faith in life and people.