I’m sorry, but teenagers have it made. They don’t pay rent, they don’t have to make (too many) decisions, and while I can attest to the fact that the Common App is stressful as hell, teen years still seem like a simpler time. However, there are still the concerns of hormones, bathroom passes, AP courses, and finding a prom date to wrangle with. There’s going away after high school, in whatever direction, and starting a new chapter without the people you love by your side. It’s a montage of feelings and Blink-182, and that Vitamin C graduation song people like to play on repeat. Essentially, it’s confusing, and even a little lonely. As if you’re in a permanent state of change for ten years and you just want to get to the end and understanding what the whole “responsibility” deal is actually all about.
But, perhaps more in the immediate, you want to get into college, or figure out what’s next in your life. Or you want to make it through your freshman year without biting off way too much. And hey, if your high school S.O. could end up not sucking that would be really great too. (But if they do end up sucking, and it takes you six years to realize that, don’t worry! You’re right on schedule.) Here are nine things you can only get away with as a teenager:
1. Lying To Your Parents
I’m like putty in their hands now. I’m an open book to my parents. Beautiful things happen when you don’t have a curfew anymore.
2. Spending Money Without Concern
Of course teenagers have to budget, and understand how to save up. But if you’re living under your parents' roof, you’re saving a lot of money, but not paying rent. So, a splurge for a movie ticket doesn’t sound as extravagant as it might in your early 20s.
3. Drinking Wine Coolers
Bless the drink of les 16-year-old baes.
4. Using “U,” “Gr8,” And “C U L8r”
Ain’t none of that in your 20s. (Or, at least, much less of that.) It’s your and you’re and, most unfortunately, not ur. Unless you’re prepared to back it with some sort of obnoxious psuedo-intellectual statement, in which case, ur is g8.
5. Hashtagging The Hell Out Of Your Photos
#to #get #more #photo #likes #lol #bae #cats
6. Skipping Out On Your Homework
You can skip homework on a Monday night and still scrape by with a decent grade. Now, if I don’t get my work done every day, I won’t get paid.
7. Expecting Your Parents To Cook For You
When I come home now, that doesn’t fly. (Though my parents do still cook for me, and it’s lovely — but it’s now a privilege I get a few times a year, as opposed to something I might’ve expected as a teen.)
8. Making Out In The Back Of A Car
When you start paying your own rent, you can pretty much make out wherever you want. It’s much less confining.
9. Watching Full House, Secret Life Of The American Teenager, any sort of Disney Channel original movie.
JK, you can get away with a casual episode of Hannah Montana in your 20s. But you have to get a babysitting gig to rationalize it.
Images: The CW, Giphy (9)
