There are generally three age groups of people: adults, children and teenagers. As a member of the third, I thought writing an article about my own generation would be easy. Predictably, I was wrong.
I wrote three complete drafts and began many more, which I rejected before they were finished. Nothing seemed to work. For the first time I understood the difficulty that parents have in understanding teenagers. We're confusing. Trying to sort things out, I consulted a dictionary.
Adolescent is defined as "A person who is no longer a child but is not yet an adult." Well, I thought. That's useful. (Note: sarcasm.) If even a dictionary can only define us by the things we aren't, what hope have we of knowing what we are?
Curious, I looked up Adult: "A person who is fully mature, who has passed adolescence." Interesting. Child: "A boy or girl at any age between infancy and adolescence."
I sat back and considered this. According to the dictionary, a child is someone who is not yet a teenager, a teenager is someone who is neither child nor adult, and an adult is someone who is no longer a teenager. That could be where some of the problem lies. We can only define ourselves by what we aren't, in relation to the other age categories. That is a simple explanation, but unsatisfactory. It still gives us no identity.
Teens seek identity. That is possibly the one thing that does distinguish us reliably. The thing that defines us collectively is our passion for individuality. Ironic, isn't it? But so true. One reason adults fear teens is our confusing diversity and our refusal to accept normality. It's one of the ways cliques are born; subgroups of people who are bent on defying the large group of people that adults try desperately to condense into a single entity that they can qualify as Teenager. This group, while admirable for its joie de vivre, is, to them, irresponsible and reckless. Someday, however, its members will manage to miraculously grow up and turn out all right. They aren't sure exactly how this will happen but they have faith that God will make it so.
God. That's another thing. Teens do not go to church. If you think about it, are you surprised? Youth want to live in the Now and most churches are still clinging to the past. They may have youth groups but many of them have no way of contributing to the church community, which means they feel as though they have no purpose. We need to feel we have a purpose. If the church is afraid that any help from us within the service will invite that much-feared demon called Change, they may be right. A new generation always does things differently than the last ones. But we don't want to take over. We only want to help. It may be hard at first to put trust in us energetic young people, but believe me, if we have a job to do, we will come on Sunday to do it. Can the change of having youth come to church possibly be a bad one?
When I was working on this article, I passed a sheet of paper around my English class with the heading: Differences and similarities between teens and adults. When I got it back I was mildly surprised that the similarities column was as full as the differences, and that the differences seemed to praise adults more. Apparently we realize the truth about ourselves, and are willing to admit it. We are less responsible. But, as my classmates said, we are all people, all experiencing life and trying to enjoy it, and always striving to be better than we are.
