Coming of Age

Shout out to a past guest contributor, Harry, whose birthday was on the 11th Feb! 

People change. Fact. Sometimes it's just a gradual thing that takes years, but it can also happen in just a few days. You can't honestly look in the mirror and say that you are the same person, inside and out, you were when you started secondary school. It can't be helped. Just take a look at all the #Gloupchallenge pictures on the Internet.

 Not familiar? Urban Dictionary defines glo-up as: When someone becomes really attractive after they hit puberty AKA ugly duckling syndrome

Change: For better or for worse?

Our experiences often shape us, for the better and occasionally, unfortunately, for the worse.

Last summer, thousands of Year 11 students, free from exams, went on NCS (National Citizens Service). Most of the people in a particular whatsapp chat I'm in went as well. It was advertised as a way to meet new people, make new friends and gain valuable experiences to help us develop as people.

When it was being sold to us in April, I thought " Yeah, why not?". Then I just got lazy when I had to make a decision, the idea just didn't appeal to me. And I regret it, well sort of.

It seems like those who did go, had a really good time (for most of it), they made lots of new friends etc. But people seemed to have changed because of it.

When I was in years 7-9, my school had a 'bad' reputation to other schools. We were "neeky and sporty". (Not my words) Now I think about it, I don't think anyone liked us...

Exhibit A. Need I say more?

Anyway before I knew it, nearly everyone in that group was way more social, partying, drinking and constantly talking about girls. I ended up calling the group the 'gossip chat'. Out of nowhere, people suddenly had girlfriends and were out every weekend. Nothing wrong with that obviously, but it felt like I must have been in some sort of a coma or something because it did honestly feel like "they just woke up one morning and realised they had a penis" (CN, 2015).

I don't know. I guess something like this was going to happen sooner or later.  I doubt anyone is still the same person they were 6 years ago. I just never expected NCS to be the turning point. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with it. It just makes me wonder why they seemingly changed at that point.

Was it because they were around loads more girls and getting some numbers made them more outgoing?  Either way, change can be good (BUT you should always try to be happy within yourself unless we're talking about something damaging like obesity) but only if you let it. Too much though and it's going to come back to bite you. Hard.

If you're going to find yourself to be a changed person, make sure it doesn't turn you into a bad one. It's easy to ignore what you once had or what the right thing to do is. Don't lose your morals, standards or friends. There's no point in making other parts of your life suffer. If it does, then it's not worth whatever advantages it brings, whether that's more money, sex or whatever fills your heart's desire.