Thursday's Children: 14 Things I'm Glad I Didn't Know at 14

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Earlier this week #14me was a trending topic on Twitter--messages people would send to their teen selves or things that they wish they knew when they were fourteen. But I think that one of the best things about being a teenager is the newness of it all. The first kiss, the first love, the first time behind the wheel of a car....well, for me that happened a smidge before I was a teenager, but that's between me, my dad and the parking lot of Lake Brantley High School

The bad stuff was important, too, though. And I think the growth that occurs through learning during painful times is probably the most important part of being a teen. In the immortal words of Alanis Morissette--goddess of all things angsty and teenage--You live, you learn.

So instead of listing the things I wish I'd known, here are some things I'm glad I didn't know when I was fourteen.

1. Bullying doesn't end when you leave high school.

2. Your first love will not be your greatest love.

3. Related to #2, you will never love anyone the same way as you love your first love. Not that you will love everyone else less, just differently.

4. Look to your left. Look to your right. Ninety percent of these people will not be your friends in five years. The ones who will aren't the ones you expect, and you will be grateful for that.

5. That thing you totally know your parents are completely wrong about? Yeeeeah, they're right.

6. The dream job that inspires you to bust your ass in high school, apply for every scholarship possible, and kick ass and take names in college so you can get into a good graduate school? You will be completely burned out on that job thirteen years later and ready to move on to an entirely different career that your ass-busting in no way prepared you for.

7. Your life will not end if you don't go to that party/dance/adventure/concert with your friends. (This is a lesson I still struggle with sometimes.)

8. You think you're tired now...

9. That thing you and your friends used to do where you'd take two cassette recorders and put them face to face so you could copy a bootlegged concert for yourself? There will be far less ghetto ways to do that in the future. Too bad you will REALLY frown upon it and come to believe that it actually is stealing.

10. Everything you think you know about government and politics is wrong. Everything. No, that, too.

11. People your age are mere mortals and just as susceptible to death as your grandparents.

12. Oooh, honey. The perm and the poofy, poodle-looking bangs? It's not nearly as attractive as you think.

13. There will come a time when standing up for what you believe in will cost you a lot of friends and it will hurt like hell.Championing underdogs can sometimes make you an underdog yourself.

14. Some questions have no good answers, no matter how hard you search for them.

Random side note: I was looking for pictures of me at 14 to include with this post and decided to google my maiden name. This was the first picture that came up, which is hilarious if you know what a complete John Green fangirl I am. (And no my maiden name is not John or Green or anything remotely related to John Green.)

Of course, this image also came up...

So...yeah.

What are some things you're glad you didn't know when you were fourteen?

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