“Oh that’s sweet.” I hate those three words when they come from my relatives lips. They come up to me at a family reunion and start the whole “last time I saw you, you were about this tall.” Then they go onto asking what grade I am in then cannot believe I will be graduating in a few years. That then makes them think I have my life planned out. So when I tell them I get this “oh that’s sweet.” Just because I want to accomplish a lot when I am a kid does not mean I cannot do it. Adults do not think teenagers and kids can go out and accomplish big things until after college, I beg to differ. Teenagers and kids not only have the ability to go out and do big things it is their responsibility to go out and do these things.

The only roadblock from success in the way of teenagers are adults. They get in the way of young adults just because they say they are inexperienced or they do not have the motivation or the right attitude to do these things. Adults’ criticism is the thing that tears down teenagers’ motivation and degrades their attitude. I should know this as I have experienced it. When I was in seventh grade, my dream was to be a marine biologist. The only problem is that one of my uncles at a Thanksgiving dinner decided to talk to me about my dreams and aspirations. I was only in seventh grade but very dead set on becoming a marine biologist. During the conversation, my uncle thinks it is a grand idea to tell me that to become a marine biologist would be as easy as “swimming up the Mississippi.” My uncle said. That left me a bit crushed but apparently he did not notice and went on to say “you also would be making just enough money to get by and you’d have stay in college if you wanted to get any decent pay.” That Thanksgiving my dream to be a marine biologist crumbled into dust.

The only divide between adults and teenagers is one thing: it is the fact that adults have experience and kids do not. The easiest way to change this is to give them the experience they need to be successful, but adults do not seem to get that. Instead, adults say wait until you get older or that is something you will learn in college. I do not know about you, but I am an impatient person so when someone tells me I have to wait for college to learn something I want to learn now I get that rebellious feeling. When I was growing up, by that I mean up until my teenage years, adults always told me to wait until I am a little older to do things I perceived as fun. This takes me to a time back when I was seven years old. When my family went to Disney World in Florida my older sister at the time was eight years old and a giant in comparison. When we got to some of the rides she wanted to go on, she was just barely tall enough. I then got the bad news that I was in fact too short to go on some of the rides. It broke my world at the time. I then went from over joyed kid in Disney World to a devastated little boy. “It’s O.K. Colin you can ride on them next time we come.” My parents repeatedly told to me. This did nothing to stop the flood of tears that followed. I did not want to wait. Adults need to get over the fact that kids do not have experience to do most things. They need to realize that kids can in fact learn when they are five years old.
Another roadblock in the world of teenagers is that they are not taken seriously and always laughed off. They never get labeled game changers, problem solvers or experts. In reality, teenagers are immensely smarter than we give them credit. They just need some support from adults instead of the constant “you’re too young”, “you wouldn’t know what’s going on”, or the “look at that cute kid trying to do that”. When groups of like-minded teenagers form, they can accomplish almost anything. With many minds with different backgrounds, they can solve problems previously restricted by only working as a lone wolf.  Also by working with other people one gains new ideas, experience, and the tools needed to succeed.

A few weeks ago, I went to a convention called We Day. You may have heard of it. We Day is a giant party for students to go and celebrate how they, young adults, can go out and change the world. When I was there they had speakers from all over the country come in. Some were actors, disabled people who had led a normal life and others were leaders in their jobs or communities. They all preached one thing that kids; teenagers and young adults can change the world. They do not have to sit by and let the adults do all the work. What I got from We Day is that it does not matter your age or your skill level. You should do whatever you want and you will succeed if you put in enough effort.

This summer I decided I wanted to get into computer programming so instead of waiting for college or complaining because my school does not have a computer programming elective, I took the initiative to ask my dad to help me find a class. My dad then went and talked to some of his work friends and figured out a good place to start. Then we went through the school I took online math from the previous year and found a class. I then enrolled and joined a yearlong coding class. That was not enough though I then joined Science Olympiad and our project is to make a robotic hand and my group decided we might need to program it. I then took the initiative to start learning the coding language we needed for that project. The moral of the story is that you do not have to and should not wait for your dreams and goals to come to you. You should go out find them and jump on them and grab them then never let go. The worst thing you could do is wait.