2014- Many children become teenagers!

Yesterday, while being at a wedding reception, a boy whom I knew for a while came to me and said in an exciting tome in his voice, ‘Uncle I will turn a teenager on my birthday in 2014’. That set me thinking of what this brings to his life and thousands of others globally in 2014. I asked him to describe three features of begin a teenager. He mentioned, one word: Freedom. I would have continued the conversation, had another friend not interrupted the conversation!

Let me reflect on the word freedom.

Freedom is  a key word, which defines a teenager. He wants to be set free from the usual restraints, expectations or demands imposed upon him. Many use this freedom and others despise it. 

I remember a teenage girl who once told me about her younger brother of seven years old, who could not speak, walk or attend a school when she was young. She was an athlete, singer, debater, and a painter. She would normally spend most of her spare time in one of these activities for which she had got state level recognition. When she turned a teenager, she asked her parents, ‘Can I withdraw from all these activities for a while, so that I would have more time with my brother’. Her parents let her choose that because of her insistence. 

During the next six months she spent her evenings and week ends with her brother, helping in his mobility, communication and socialisation. She persuaded her parents to let him attend her school in a wheel chair. At the end of two years, he was mobile, communicating and became an active school goer, although with some limitations. 

This teenager sought freedom to choose what she would do with her time. She let go of her interests to make a difference in the life of her brother, who until then received help from therapists coming home to help. They did help the child, but she invested her in the life of her brother devotionally and lovingly. 

Freedom, for teenagers can mean many things.  I wish we can give them an opportunity to choose wisely while we offer them freedom! They can be so original in their thought that, it needs patience on our part to see the opportunity they envisage through their optic. 

Teenagers are a resource and trend setters ! Let us be alive and alert to their instincts!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)