How was your teenage years?

[SeroVich]

Hello users of the MotK who are older than me, I am here to know how life was when you were a teen. Was it average, wonderful, chaotic, painful, etc.?

[Funbil]

Ah... It was weird!! A lot of trying to figure my own self out, which meant a lot of pretending and a lot of mimicking others who seemed to have it together themselves. Because I didn't really know who I was yet, I didn't ever let myself be myself. Does that make sense? Looking back, I think a lot of the other kids I knew were doing the same thing. I'm sure if I met with them again we'd all be surprised at how different we are now. Everything seemed so immediately catastrophic back then too, like if I did one thing wrong then it was the end of the world. It's stressful being a teenager! When all you know is school life, it's hard to imagine other kinds of experiences. I guess it's a little like Plato's allegory of the cave. I remember the first few weeks after I graduated, I was amazed that now I had every single minute of every single day to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and how this is what the rest of my life looks like. This is what the real world looks like. It immediately put so much into perspective. I think if I had been aware of this feeling as a teenager, I would have chilled out a lot more, lol

[CyberAngel]

I was literally a harem protagonist. Only guy in an otherwise all-female class. Though I only came to appreciate that afterwards, being too busy studying and becoming a gamer back then. Overall, I was too cold and serious, hesitant to open up to anyone (which I can attribute to bad experiences before changing schools). Now I wish I kept in touch with everyone from back then. Good thing I decided to take it easy in uni, that was a much more fun time.

[degradingwindow]

I was literally a harem protagonist. Only guy in an otherwise all-female class. Though I only came to appreciate that afterwards, being too busy studying and becoming a gamer back then. Overall, I was too cold and serious, hesitant to open up to anyone (which I can attribute to bad experiences before changing schools). Now I wish I kept in touch with everyone from back then. Good thing I decided to take it easy in uni, that was a much more fun time.

You fool. Dark, edgy, mysterious, all-female class, you had all the pieces set out for you and yet you didn't use them.

Is that how Rinnosuke must have felt like?

[WitheringFlowerCrown]

My teenage life was mainly a time of me figuring out how to interact with people while being myself.
I was diagnosed with Autism at ~10-11, which meant that I had learn all the hidden rules of human interaction manually, in a classroom, and then put them to action. This took a while, around 6 years (I was 18 years old when I figured it out so 6 years was 1/3 of my life). Despite this, I still made friends. Mainly others who were also "Outcasts" in ways, I heard very interesting stories from them.
I don't where they are now, but I hope they're all okay.
So overall, the teenage years were filled with me being confused on all these "hidden rules" that people expect you to know, being upset when people didn't understand me or even try to meet me halfway, and trying to cherish the few friends that I did have.

[nav]

Absolutely terrible. I was the lonely misfit kid. In primary and middle school I had maybe two decent friends, everyone else either picked on me or ignored me. In secondary school there was no more picking, for which I'm thankful, but I rarely interacted with others. Didn't even attend prom. I compensated with escapism a lot, mostly computer games and online chatrooms (most of my friendships at the time were online, though only two stood the test of time... I met my wife online too, but that was past my teens already). Well, what can I say, it was a strawberriesty time and I'm glad it's long over.

[akudan]

I'm still a uni student, so my teenage years aren't very far behind me.  But I can definitely say that they got better as I got older.  I used to (and still do to some extent) have a good deal of social anxiety and struggled making friends in school.  I was never picked on, outside of middle school, but I had trouble fitting in with other kids and didn't really build many close relationships.  I was always on the fringe of several different friend groups, but not really part of the "core" of any of them. 
Part of the reason I didn't really get to know anyone is like how Funbil said earlier in the thread, that anytime anything went wrong it seemed like the end of the world.  It often felt like saying something awkward or misinterpreting a social cue would totally destroy a friendship, so I erred too far on the side of caution and

[akudan]

continuing from my last post, which I accidentally hit "post" on:
I erred too far on the side of caution and didn't open up to anyone.  Looking back, I can see that people were generally nice to me and probably would have been open to being friends with me, but I simply rarely took the opportunity. 
As I grew older, I became more confident in myself and started being less afraid of other people and messing up social interactions, which made me a lot happier and more comfortable interacting with other people, although I still wouldn't say I have many close friends.  Also, I really relate to what a lot of people here are saying about figuring out hidden social rules.  I was never diagnosed with autism, but it was still hard for me to intuitively understand social interaction and I had to manually figure out a lot of the rules.  So as I got older, I understood the rules better, which made social interaction easier. 

[WitheringFlowerCrown]

continuing from my last post, which I accidentally hit "post" on:

Something that you may already know: You can modify posts after submitting them. As long as you don't massively omit something and/or modify it soon after posting, nobody will have a problem.

Good job on improving your social skills. I mainly spent my time avoiding conversations entirely since I was absolutely sure that something would go wrong, so why should I bother with it anyway? I'm glad I got out of that attitude.

[akudan]

You can modify posts after submitting them.

Ah, very good to know.  I'm new-ish to traditional forums like this so thanks for letting me know.  Also I'm glad you were able to get better at socializing as well!

[SeroVich]

Another thing, do you guys have any regrets during your teen days? I know I have my regrets also.

[williewillus]

Another thing, do you guys have any regrets during your teen days? I know I have my regrets also.

anyone who answers no to this question is a big liar :P

[CyberAngel]

The regrets you get are valuable experience, the cringy memories a reminder of what you shouldn't do. Teen years are overall a time to make mistakes and learn from them, and preferrably to learn that it's best to learn from more than that.

[cloudshift]

well,it's quite a longgone story to me

[SeroVich]

well,it's quite a longgone story to me

Daaaaaaaannn, tell me now, I'm interested. 

[High-Tension Yuuritsu]

Hey there, here are words from someone who has just turned 18.
My teenage years...were filled with either Touhou, or robot anime. They're all that I have ever known, and will probably remain that way for a long time.
Since this is a Touhou forum, I'll concentrate on the Touhou side. I first knew of Touhou in 2018, when I was about to enter grade 7, and I so stuck with it since then all the way until now, when I'm almost finished with high school. Touhou and its community fulfilled me so much that I never felt the need to look at other series or fandoms. I love the series, I love the games, I love the characters, I love the music, I love everything about it. My dream is to draw fanart for Spell Cards for every single Touhou boss, since it's a way for me to express my love to Touhou to the world.

[Antimattter Eels]

Another thing, do you guys have any regrets during your teen days? I know I have my regrets also.

oooh definitely! but I think those regrets are a sign that you've grown. But, I've still got like a year and a half more until I'm officially no longer a teen... maybe I should start doing more cringe things for me to regret in the future! >:}

[degradingwindow]

My dream is to draw fanart for Spell Cards for every single Touhou boss, since it's a way for me to express my love to Touhou to the world.

That's pretty cool. Make sure to tell us if you ever do it.

[marumuju]

My teenage years were mostly spent around school, getting driven home from school and playing computer games. I was somewhat bullied , but that was mostly because I got better grades than other boys. I must thankfully say that my bullies didn't have much imagination, so I got off rather lightly.

But. In retrospect, I feel that my whole life actually only started after my teenage years. Most of the good, best and worst things all happened after that. I think it is a somewhat American phenomenon to think about teenage years as special (although, I would have very very much have wanted a driving license at 16, we only got mopeds until 18).

If there's anything to say; you'll get over it. You will have better times ahead of you, people that you are going to like more, stuff that you like more, etc. The life definitely doesn't end at 18 or so. For example, I found Touhou at 32. It does actually feel that there's always more to discover. At least since I'm not aiming to be a world-class athlete, that thing is wholly out of the picture.

[cloudshift]

Daaaaaaaannn, tell me now, I'm interested. 

well,I gotta rewind a little

[Corellanus]

Teenage years were relatively calm in my case.  Though everything before and in the start of it resulted in me being constantly silent most of the time. Stream of bullying into high school and then basically nothing(physical) meant I never had an easy time interacting with other people, even if I wanted to.  I still struggle with this even now, despite how much time has passed.  Almost everyone I had any real connection with since then has cut me off at some point or seemingly dropped off the planet in some way, meaning I now get to view the world from a more disconnected perspective as a result.  I don't feel like I can actually trust people, and I've had a near permanent state of mild depression for as long as I can remember.

I know this is probably heavier or not quite as heavy as some, but it's been eating away at me for years and still does.