Oh the Joys of Being a Teenager.

"...and so we invented 'the teenager', an unfortunate creature who had all the yearnings and capabilities of an adult, but none of the freedoms or responsibilities." - Alex Harris (That's a quote I copied from my friend Lexi's One Year Adventure Novel profile. It's pretty much true.)

So, yesterday my mom's friend Liz called my mom, and asked if I wanted to go to the field museum with her, her husband, and their daughter, my friend Mae. Since I didn't really have anything planned (except reading A Confederacy of Dunces *shakes fist at book*), I said sure, and we went.
While we were riding in the car for three hours (1.5 hours there... 1.5 hours back), and while we were at the museum, I decided that being a teenager really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of course, this isn't a new revelation, but one nonetheless that I wasn't pleased to discover. Here is a list (wow, another list post... I hope you aren't getting sick of these), of all the reasons I've thought up so far, of why it isn't that great to be a teenager. (Coming soon.. Why it's AWESOME to be a teenager! [figured I need some balance here... My blog is slowly becoming quite negative.])

1. The bad rep: It doesn't matter how you actually act... It seems like most adults catch a sight of braces and think, "OH MY GOSH IT'S A DELINQUENT! DON'T LET THEM OUT OF YOUR SIGHT OR THEY'LL DESTROY SOMETHING!!!!" *eyeroll* I'll have you know that I have never graffitied, damaged, exploded, or otherwise hurt public property. Geesh!
2. Hormones: We're all chalked up to being moody. But is that our fault? No! It's usually because of these little green alien things called "hormones" floating around our heads and making us act grumpy! Give us a break! You act pretty terrible too, sometimes!
3. indecision: No, this isn't your imagination (though, you being an adult, the existence of your imagination seems to be questionable... ^_^). We really are indecisive, unless you tell us to do something. Usually, and I really don't know why... We hear "Go do X" and we think, "NO! I am going to do Y!!! HA!!!"
   
4. Responsibility: This is a tricky one. On one hand, we like to be responsible. Having responsibility is a nice thing. It makes us feel like we're trusted. Being trusted is always a good feeling. On the other hand, however, if you just heap a lot of your problems and responsibilities on us, we start feeling resentful. I guess it's a tricky balance to get, but generally... try to give us more responsibility than a kid, but not as much as you would, say, a coworker. ;)