Teenagers

I was thinking the other day how odd it is in society how we pressure teenagers to make life altering decisions when the vast majority of them are not even a fifth through their lives yet. This phenomenon is particularly predominant in two areas, education & relationships.

Firstly relationships, many teenagers are expected by society (parents, guardians, peers) to get married upon graduation or at least be seriously thinking about it. They are expected to meet, fall in love with and marry someone from high school or college and be hitched and often bear children before they are even 25. If a person could live to be a hundred (which is completely possible nowadays) that means that before a quarter of their life is up they are expected to make a decision about a partner who they will (in theory) spend the next 3/4s of their life with. Similarly they are expected to bring offspring into this world when they are barely adults themselves.

Secondly education, as people of 17 or 18 years old teens are expected to decided on a career path they will supposedly pursue for another forty years until they can retire. This one is a bit more lax in society now as adults of my generation often have many "careers" in their lives, but the main point of schooling beyond post secondary is to decide on a path that will continue for the remainder of one's life.

I think it's so odd that we put so much pressure on teens to make these kinds of decisions when they are still growing & changing and coming into their own. I think a far more reasonable expectation would be for them to "figure things out" by the time they are 30 or 35... if life started 10 years later for people I think a lot of people would be a lot happier.

I won't even comment on societies that marry off their daughter's at 14 to men they've never met!...