A few things I wish I knew as a teenager
My teenage years scare the living sh*t out of me. It was not that bad or good—just fine. I was in public high school with teenagers same my age. I have companions whom I can consider friends.
Every lunch break we go to the cafeteria to eat, gossip, or do assignments. I think my teenage years are fun—less stress, not being aware of what was going on, just watching anime, and dance practices.
A few things I wish I knew as a teenager
Being cool is overrated.
Most of the time we cannot avoid peer pressure—especially when we are teenagers. At school, I’m surrounded by people my age whose looks are aligned with society’s idea of beauty. The rise of social media use did not help at all with all the likes and compliments from other people.
Every day at school I always wonder, what’s with them? What do people my age find interesting about them? It has always been a mystery to me, how one can be considered a cool kid because I was never the cool kid but that’s fine. I realized many things while transitioning to being an adult.
My body is fine.
I grew up fat. I still am.
As a teenager, it is a struggle for me to look positively at myself because of my body. I always thought that someone will not love me unless I make myself as thin as the other girls. It was a frustration for me as someone who has always been called out for being fat. Those hurtful words did not hurt me enough to succeed in every crash diet I tried.
Now I am in a place where I can say that I love myself including my body. Looking back I know I have been toxic to myself. But I don’t blame myself, I mostly blame society and how they villanized bodies. All of this is because I have gained weight from eating food just because I am hungry.
Do not be afraid to be left out.
I have mentioned in some of my articles that my teenage years were not phenomenal. It was fun and I have good friends. However, my worst nightmare is being absent from school even for a day. Believe me, a lot has happened already while you’re gone.
I do not want to be absent from school because I don’t want to miss out on jokes, happenings, gossip, etc. But since I realized that there’s nothing wrong with being left out. I mean, it’s freeing to think that you are fine to know everything right away.
Being insecure is normal.
We have this negative connotation about insecurity. As a teenager, I was insecure about many things in my life. I am insecure about my body, my hair, my voice, my intellectual capacity, etc. Only now that I have been confident about these parts of my body. Although sometimes I relapse that’s fine it’s normal.
Every time I see myself drowning in my insecurities, I always remind myself to not disappoint my teenage self. I am almost 23 now, there are times I struggle to like myself, but I promised to always choose to love myself—and that’s on growth.
