Changes: Challenges

Adolescent life starts at age 13-18 years old it is where a person experiences a lot of
changes in her physical, cognitive, emotional, social and other aspects of his or her self.
According to Debarati Chatterjee adolescent life is the most turbulent phase of life, where
maladaptive changes may rise to problems or challenges. In this stage, teenagers tend to have
this "to find myself" journey that is sometimes contradicting to their parents' will for them. Self-
discovery is essential for the teens because it will help them interact and build relationship with
the people around them. If this is not achieved there is a tendency that the person will be
socially introverted and may have a very low self-esteem. Due to the physical changes that take
place in this stage, the person becomes very conscious about his or her body because of the
unwanted odor, acne, and unwanted hair that may contribute to the problems of being an
adolescent. The individual also becomes rebellious to the rules of his or her parents regarding
certain things that he or she may not do. They want to establish their own rules to take the
path that they want and this also leads to a constant quarreling or misunderstanding between
parents. Also in this stage, the individual is very open in trying risky behaviors like taking drugs,
smoking and drinking alcoholic drinks. Stress and pressures are also the causes of anxiety
experience by the individual. It is cause by the demands of the people around him or the
expectations expected from him. Mood swings is also rampant in this stage where in the mood
an individual suddenly changes caused by hormones in the body that is part of the change
happening to the adolescent life.

Attraction to opposite sex is now present in this stage where an individual starts to date
someone. This attraction to adolescence gives rise to the new feelings in the teenager where
they push themselves to experiment within their bodies. This is where they will have their first
kiss with their boyfriend and girlfriend which may lead to some secret make out sessions. We
can't deny the fact that this is one of the primary reasons why teenage pregnancy is very high in
our country. Next the educational challenges, is the pressure to perform academically based on
the expectations of the people around that individual, that he or she must obtain that kind of
grade or rank in his or her school. This is a big challenge for all the adolescents because they
don’t want to disappoint the people around them. It's like "one wrong move and game over"
once you commit a mistake, all of their expectations will turn into a bad comment about you,
about your performance. For their health challenges, teenagers have a hectic schedule as they
hop from one activity to another; they will have this unhealthy eating habit wherein they will
lose their appetite in eating foods it is because they are bombarded with activities and projects.
Time management is also a challenge for a teenager especially when he or she is addicted to
social media where in the individual have less friends and an unhealthy social life.
 Although these challenges are sometimes disturbing or ruining the life path of an
individual, these also have solutions to prevent from happening. Adolescents must be vigilant
enough to know what is right and wrong in making decisions especially when a lot of people will
be involved at the very end of the situation. An individual must also consider the views,
thoughts and opinions of other people in the means of facing these challenges in a very positive
way. Teenagers must lift up their confidence level and accept their body, skin color and figure in
order to develop the “I’m good enough” attitude in life. Handle the stress and pressure in a very
cool way and find ways to overcome it because the longer the time of being stress, the bigger
the possibility of having an anxiety or most probably a depression. Sexual feelings and thoughts
of sex for me is wrong to an adolescent because we still need to understand our goals and roles
in the society. “Exploratory stage” for me, this is the main problem because here adolescence
will now have this burning desire in trying out of the box things neglecting the rules of their
parents. It’s like they want to take their own rules and paths in life and start being independent
from their parents which they think is good since they are already in the transition stage from
childhood life. Now, being independent is different from being rebellious. Independent is when
you are taking your own path with the right decisions and actions following still the rules of
your parents. Rebellious is when you are being independent from your parents but you are
doing the wrong things which you think is better because you are following your rules or you’re
doing the things that you want to do without minding anymore the rules and the feelings of
your parents. Do not just think of yourself. Consider the feelings and opinions of other people
because they can also help you find a solution in solving these challenges in this stage of life.

There’s nothing wrong about exploring the things that you want to experience or to do
in life but make sure that you know the possible outcomes of your decision especially when it is
disobeying the rules of your parents. Breaking rules is fun to be honest but, doing the things
that are totally out of the box is not okay already. These challenges are just some temptations
in the adolescent life. It will test the attitude of an individual whether he or she knows his or
her priorities in life. In life, we have these two attitudes; “fight and flight”. It is whether a
person fights against these challenges and overcome it. Flight, meaning go with the flow of life
wherein if you are facing these challenges, you don’t care at all it is because you have this
thought in your mind that it is okay and normal so you will not think about certain solutions.