Upturn Learning

This is a blog I, a teenager, wrote after surveying a group of teens, reading up a lot of “What I Wish My Parents Knew” articles online and listening to a lot of angsty songs by teenagers on youtube.

Maybe you’re reading this blog because you’re a teenager who feels that their parents just don’t get them and want to see if others on the internet feel the same (in that case, we’ve all been there, it’s normal). Or maybe you’re a parent who is trying to understand what their teen really wants, because communicating with them is sometimes so difficult. Either way, I hope you take away something from what you’re about to read (and might I add, you may want to listen to ‘Dear Parents’ by Tate McRae while you’re at it).

Dear Parents,

We wish you knew what goes on in our minds when we do the things that we do. We might come off as rebellious or oh so hard to understand, but we just want to take on life in our own way. And by that, we don’t mean we want to attend endless parties and sleepovers and watch movies all day and not care if we fail all our exams- because believe it or not, we know what to prioritise! We just want to be able to do things in a way that might be different from that way that you did, when you were our age.

We wish you understood that we are not the little children we once were, who needed to be told how to do things. We wish you knew that when we are stubborn about doing something our way, we very well know we might get it wrong, but we want to do it anyway. We wish you knew that we do, as a matter of fact, know that you want the best for us, but sometimes you should let us try and do things just for the sake of making our own mistakes and learning from them.

We wish you knew that we have our own ambitions and aspirations and NO! they do not have to be about getting that “one job” you had dreamed we’d get or that “one degree” we want to receive in the future either- sometimes we have dreams that just aren’t about universities and degrees at all. Maybe we love making music and dream of selling out arenas! But then again we aren’t as great as we thought we were, but we hope you don’t discourage us altogether from pursuing it as a hobby. Maybe every passion we have is not worth showcasing to the world or even adding to our resume, but we wished we had more time to give to it, just because it makes us happy.

We also wish you knew that we need some space to be ourselves and grow and we need a certain amount of privacy. This does not mean that we want to completely alienate you from our lives, but we sure need personal space. When we are ready to update you about things that happen in our lives, we will but please don’t make it an “advice session.” If you are not sure if we are open to advice on the topic, you could just ask. A simple “Do you want to hear my thoughts on this?” would be really nice to hear.

We’d finally like to say to you, parents, we know you always dream of seeing us fly and never fail- no wonder the constant effort to make us reach our highest potential- but we do hope you see that we feel like we have so much to juggle and so much we want to achieve too. We hope that you see how hard we are working on getting to the places we want to be in, and that with the constant push to do better, you appreciate us for our work as well! Lastly, but not the least, we want you to know how much we love and appreciate everything you do, even when we get rebellious, angry, moody or annoyed with you!

Urja is a fun-loving, energetic teen with a passion for writing and believes in having healthy discussions about various topics to gather perspectives. She wrote her very first poem in the fifth grade and has been writing poems and articles ever since. She also loves to read books and watch films and give her critical analysis on each scene, thanks to her English teachers. She landed the opportunity to write for UpTurn, which she thoroughly enjoys. She can’t wait to see what else comes her way in her literary journey.