THE WAY I SEE IT: 16 is a grey area between adults and children

MANY people say that your teenage years are a pretty ‘in-between’ stage of your life. I agree.

Honestly, adolescence seems like a crummy TV soap half the time; with everyone’s hormones going on a rampage, the dramatics never seem to end.

However, it’s only in the last month or two that I’ve felt the strange, grey area.

I took a step back to look at all of the drastic changes that were about to be made, or big events coming up, and my eyes fell on the Leaving Cert.

I’m not even doing my Leaving Cert this year; I’ve just got a bunch of friends who are.

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In three months, they’ll be scattered far out of reach, going to college or taking apprenticeships or travelling the globe. (Just the other day, they had to ask permission to use the bathroom. Isn’t that mind-boggling?) It’s made me feel awfully left behind, even though, in one year, I’ll be on my merry way, too.

There’s just such a gigantic leap from secondary school to the great beyond, that even one year can put an infuriating distance between you and your friends.

I’ve begun to resent my age because it is restricting. I mean, I can’t even own a PayPal account. I cannot buy a shirt off of E-Bay. Once you turn 17, legally you can have sex, and drive (though, not at the same time…just clarifying), but God forbid I create a PayPal account. You have to be 18 for that. Who writes this stuff?

Actually, speaking of driving, that’s another thing that’s started to surprise me.

Do you know how unnerving it is to see people you went to primary school with drive right past you? Or see sixth-years park their cars outside the school in the morning? I don’t turn 17 until July, so I must remain a pedestrian until then, but even at driving I’ll be another step behind a few of my older friends.

The list kind of goes on like that. People being too old to go back to summer camp, finding jobs, the sudden 18th birthday party epidemic, or people planning and booking trips abroad with best friends.

It feels like they made it. They’ve done it, they’ve finally finished school. ‘Big kids’ going off into their ‘big kid’ worlds with their ‘big kid’ dreams. And it all feels a little bit lonely.Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of friends my own age, who I love to bits, and we’re going to face next year’s challenges together. But I’m sure they’ll agree, with freedom still so tantalisingly out of reach, it can be a little upsetting, waving your ‘big kid’ friends goodbye.

There are thousands of teenagers just like me out there, I know. We’re neither little nor big, free or restricted; we are the anonymous grey area, the in-between, and, believe me when I tell you, it’s frustrating as hell.

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