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IN MY YOUTH, I THOUGHT LIFE WOULD BEGIN WHEN I HIT SWEET 16.
I considered that the pinnacle of the teenage years—a highpoint of my adolescence that would consist of a driver’s license, football games, parties, and boys.
Sixteen didn’t turn out to be the year-long fiesta I expected though because being a teenager is more difficult than it appears. Those rapidly changing minds and bodies have a way of hampering the fun that’s expected to accompany the driver’s licenses, the football games, the parties, and the boys. Not only do they endure raging hormones, teens have to deal with the stigma of just being teens. Sure, they tend to throw forethought out the window and take a lot of risks. And yea, they’re inclined to believe they know far more than any authority figure on any subject. They get themselves into a pickle or two because of those traits—at least I know I did. My dad used the phrase “young and dumb” quite frequently to describe me as a teen. It was a justifiable characterization—I’m just thankful my juvenile blunders still replay over and over inside my own head only and not on YouTube for the entire planet to view. Teens have a bad rap when it comes to love, too. Jumping wholeheartedly into relationships with little regard for prudence or caution, their romances can seem reckless and foolish. Just ask my mother… for every time the teenage me announced I was “head over heels,” her only response was “You’re too young to know what love is.” But I’ve discovered that 55 has a way of forgetting what 16 is really like, and admittedly, from my “vantage” point of age and experience, I too can be quick to judge today’s teenagers for being “young and dumb” or foolish in love. And like the older generations of the past, I tend to believe that if teens would just follow the advice and example of those who came before them, they wouldn’t have to bumble their way through so much of their adolescence. What I’ve forgotten is how those years are marked by a great deal of beauty, too. In no other phase of life are we more free to go with our gut, to take risks, to bare our soul, and to love with reckless abandon. Sure, most would agree that teenagers don’t know what love is. But then again, most want to feel like a teenager when they fall in love. You know that feeling I mean…that one that re-energizes us; that one that we can’t guard our heart from; that one that isn’t based on logic, but simply feels right; that one that is natural, and fierce, and uncomplicated. I can’t deny that there’s a reasonableness that comes with age. But what if instead of always proceeding with calculated caution, we channel the teenager that’s still in us and go with our gut more often, take more risks, bare our souls, and love with reckless abandon? I decided to do just that recently when a man came into my life who makes me feel like a teenager again. As it turns out, feeling young and dumb and in love is actually the wisest, most commonsensical thing I’ve ever done. w
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JUNE 2021
w OMAN.COM
L AK ENORMAN
DANA JORDAN
LAURA ADAMS
J UNE CONTRI B UTO RS
Lynn Claunch; Dr. Michael Foran; Michelle Hoverson; Jaeda Lahnee; Michelle Love; Lindsay Martell; Nahi Nadra; Dr. Wissam Nadra; Dr. Nicole Whitehead
www.LakeNormanWoman.com
704.895.6168
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