Where do I fit?

Introduction- My goal fo this essay was to explain how teenagers feel, but not talking about clichés. I like how I made my writing very relatable to an average teenager. I could’ve improved on my ending. The first three paragraphs were very strong but I feel like I fell off as my writing continued.

“You make happy, this you can bet, yeah,” I sang to the top of my lungs along with Beyonce. Forgetting all about the broom that is laying at my feet that I’m supposed to be using.

As I begin to break a sweat because I’m currently at the thirty-ninth song of the album I hear my mom screaming. I turn down the volume and begin to frantically look back and forth because I know I was supposed to be cleaning instead of pretending to be one of Beyonce’s backup dancers. Making me think to myself, “ why didn’t I just do as I was told in the first place?” I am a sixteen girl, with two jobs and currently, a junior in high school. You would think I have so much say so in my life but I don’t. It’s not what I say that goes; it’s what my mother says. I have so much power but then again none at all. People tend to forget how much responsibility teenagers have but then again we have so little. The definition of responsibility is the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization. Although we have a slight taste of responsibility, we as teenagers cannot fully grasp the concept because most of us aren’t allowed to act independently due to our parents.

Trying to learn how to adjust to life we begin to constantly test our figures of authority; not to be disobedient but to learn the limits. We’re not ten anymore. An average sixteen-year-old doesn’t have a certain bedtime but then again is expected to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Teenagers move in a grey area because things are no longer black and white. We no longer learn from what our elders tell us. We’re just expected to know everything, but then again we’re always told we’re “too young” to know what we’re talking about. Leaving us with very little authority. It’s like flipping a coin, starting off there is always a fifty-fifty chance of actually being the authority figure. However when you add more factors your chances either increase or decrease. For instance, if you have younger siblings or have nieces and nephew it increases the chance of you being able to have some sort of oversight of someone else’s life. With me, it’s my nieces. They are at the age of four and six. I’m allowed to discipline them but only to a certain extent. I remember a time I was back in that grey area because I was being told what to do as I was telling some else something different.

I walk through the doors and instantly the smell of buttered popcorn hit my nose. I see all the little kids run to their parents to only think about how this is probably their first time seeing this movie. They wouldn’t be able to sing along or anticipate the line. With them, everything is so new and to me, this is just a remake to a classic. I look down to see my nieces and witness how much joy there was in their eyes. We’re all so excited to see this big screen as the lights begin to dim. As always the theater is full of distractions, from yelling toddlers, ringing phones, to someone behind me smacking in my ear. My nieces wouldn’t stay still and were easily distracted because it wasn’t that interesting to them as it was to me. I constantly feel them moving and notice how jittery they were due to the enormous ICCE they had just finished. I knew that I would be rudely interrupted to take not only one but both to the restroom. Minutes later I get a tap on my leg asking can I take them. I knew it was coming so I couldn’t be too mad, and it’s not like I don’t know what’s going to happen next in the movie. Yet I still don’t want to get up to walk out of the movie theater and take two toddlers to the restroom.

Knowing I wanted to tell them no but I couldn’t because as I was looking down at them with annoyance my mom was doing the same to me. I wanted to tell them no and continue watching the movie but I couldn’t. I had no right to tell my mom “I don’t want to walk them. Can you do it?” In this case scenario, I couldn’t make a decision for myself without getting approval from another.