Understanding Teenagers’ Feelings

by Moises Cuizara

Hi! I’m Moises, I’m from Bolivia, and I am 27 years old. I came to this country 11 short months ago.

I want to talk about the behavior of adolescents because once I was also an adolescent, and because some young people and adolescents behave with bad attitudes. Since I am not much older than them, and I am much younger than their parents, I thought both teens and parents could learn something from what I have to say.

High school is often the stage where teenagers start “acting out.” It is a moment where they want to be right at all times. We want to be conspicuous in any way both at school, at home and among our friends.

Many times, we feel that nobody understands us. We receive pressure from the teachers and from our parents. Sometimes we are afraid to put up with many things which can feel like psychological abuse in our homes. I mean psychological abuse because in our house is where we spend most of the time of our lives far apart from friends from school and teachers. There, we can experience so much pressure about life.

Parents at this stage feel that a young adolescent should pay more attention to them than to their friends. The teens are at a stage where they want to experience everything and know more, that is where one looks for friendships of all kinds depending on who you identify with or with whom you feel more comfortable.

Many of our teachers sometimes are not our friends since they only come to teach classes and return home, few are those who sit and share with the students. Some students have many things that they hide, perhaps they do not bring to light for fear of what people will say.

Adults should listen more to teenagers. The teens are growing and don’t know what to do. They need guidance.