Curious Lives of Teenagers: Being a Teenager is...

According to data collected from high schoolers
Being a Teenager is..

• Emotionally and physically exhausting

• Being an adult stuck with childish restrictions

• Hitting mailboxes with #LobCity

• Reading Crime and Punishment AND annotating AND writing an essay

• Complicated

• You can tell what’s right and what’s wrong à More clever at lying to parents à always getting your way because you’ve learned how to be a pro at manipulating à you feel like you can do anything.

• Super easy?

• Like going to a thrift store with $20

• One Direction #cut4bieber

• Fun but hurtful

• Colorful

• Like being a watermelon, the outside is hard and the inside is cold and mushy

• Destroying property #LobCity

• Tiring. I need some time to sleep.

• Annoying. We’re not kids, but we’re not adults. Just stuck awkwardly in the middle. Really? Come on!

• Like a box of chocolates. Ya never know what you’re gonna get.

• Stressful. Teachers and parents try to help, but are unsuccessful.

• Exhausting.

• Being yourself, unless you can be Batman…always be Batman.

• Like eating two bowls of brussel sprouts; no one wants to do it.

• Fun but extremely tiring.

• I have no idea

• Dramatic and fantastic, exciting with a hint of frightening and romantic with a dash of frantic.

• Fun

• Rewarding

• Super stressful

• Tough but fun learning experience

• The only time range when you can be completely dependent on your parents and legally an adult

• Hormonal

• doing whatever pleases you whenever

• frustrating at times because older people/adults don’t take you seriously. Especially in a work environment.

• Dealing with the stupid people around you…including Justin Beiber fans

• Making friendships that will last a lifetime and probably losing a few, too

• Constantly questioning yourself

• Putting yourself out there because you have nothing to lose

• Ups and downs, lefts and rights, twists and turns and diagonals: it is easy, it is hard, it is life, and it is death, it is rebirth. Being a teenager is just unique… being a teenager is being you

• Like a really hard workout. If you stay focused and diligent, the experience will benefit you. But if you become side-tracked, your time will be wasted.

• Great because there’s a restart button at 18.

• Having as much fun as you possibly can

• Being molded into who you are by your environment, and is harder than it looks.

**Some kids were attempting to be funny. Humor may not translate well in typed form, but thought it was worth including them nonetheless to get a sense of what they are thinking.

** I didn't include every response, and it should be noted that the most common response -- by far -- was along the lines of "being tired all the time."