The End
After comparing the stories of my two friends to myself, I was happy to see that we, besides sharing a certain disdain for filling out workbooks, also share similar sentiments on both our upbringing, maturation, and eventual clarity. I thought that it was interesting that we all had period of rebellion and acting out. Teenage angst is nothing new. Everyone, from moody middle-school minors to unruly and often agonizing high school students, begins to resent their parents, argue, and make several years generally unpleasant for those around them. However, for me and those I interviewed they seemed to make a point of attempting to connect the way they were raised, specifically the hours of rigorous disciplining, schedule structure, and homework that were done outside of normal school work. I found that the fact that for most of our developmental childhood, we had relatively little say in our upbringing. Obviously, an eight-year-old, ten-year-old, or even a fourteen-year-old need someone to guide them, to set up some guidelines because they are simply to inexperienced and naïve to make key decisions. However, when every step is plotted and planned out, by the time we are let loose into the world that is high school, we begin to feel as though all of the rules that were and will be set for us are designed specifically to harm, torture, and agonize us.
What I also found interesting, something that became quite unique, was that towards the end of our respective high school careers, after several years of goofing off and being generally unproductive, we were able to find a foothold. From that foothold, we were able to build a base for our future selves. Soon, we realized the necessity of our parents’ rules and embraced their order. However, having grown up under their fist, rebelling, and then returning we had a greater scope of the direction we wanted our lives to take and a better sense of how to achieve those goals.
What I also found interesting, something that became quite unique, was that towards the end of our respective high school careers, after several years of goofing off and being generally unproductive, we were able to find a foothold. From that foothold, we were able to build a base for our future selves. Soon, we realized the necessity of our parents’ rules and embraced their order. However, having grown up under their fist, rebelling, and then returning we had a greater scope of the direction we wanted our lives to take and a better sense of how to achieve those goals.