Teen vs. Young Adult

So how is a typical teenager different from a young adult? Typical teenagers shun responsibility, opportunity, and progression. In an article about the history of the teenager, Dr. Michael Platt put it best when he said:

“What a Teenager most fears is a child of his own. His second greatest fear is death. And his third greatest fear is solitude. The thoughts 'I can beget a child,' or 'I can bear a child,' 'I will die,' and 'I am alone,' have often been the beginning of wisdom. The Teenager flees them. The Teenager cannot stand to be alone. For such a human being the natural mode of association is the gang. And how does one picture a gang of Teenagers, if not in a car speeding down the road, listening to rock music, and on drugs? Or at the rock concert in a gang of gangs?” (Home- school.com).

Teenagers don't seem to care about the real world outside their high school peer group. Their main goal is to get through school doing as little as possible, and then “live life to the fullest.” Platt goes on to say:

“The Teenager is the most free and the least happy of beings. Thoreau said most people lead lives of 'quiet desperation.' The desperation of the Teenager is not quiet. With the Rolling Stones, they shout, 'I can't get no satisfaction.' A being less acquainted with joy there has never been. A being more dangerous, it is hard to imagine” (Home-school.com).

Distinguishing a teenager from a young adult isn't that hard. While teenagers shy away from responsibility, young adults seek after knowledge and learning experiences. They strive to better themselves and others around them.

Alex and Brett Harris, two homeschooled teenage brothers from Colorado, wrote a book called Do Hard Things; A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. They call their movement “the rebelution.” In their book they explain, “We combined rebellion and revolution to form an entirely new word for an entirely new concept: rebelling against rebellion. More precisely, we define rebelution as 'a teenage rebellion against low expectations” (11). Do Hard Things is about breaking the walls of low expectations that everyone comes to expect from teens by doing hard things. That is a huge difference between teens and young adults. Teens seek for the easy way of life, but young adults embrace challenges because they know that challenges are really just learning experiences.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey is a sort of youth self-help book that has taught me important habits. Another book, The Young Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews, is a fictional story about a teenager named Michael who is going through a hard time in his life. He is sent back through time to learn from wonderful leaders from the past. He is taught seven decisions for success. Both books have impacted me as I have looked for practical differences between typical teens and productive young adults.

• Have you read any of these books? What did you think about them? Did they inspire you to action?
  
  

Coming up...Are you a typical teen or proactive young adult? Rate yourself!

Sources:

Andrews, Andy. The Young Traveler's Gift.

Covey, Sean, and Inc OverDrive. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. S.I.: Touchstone, 2014. Print.

Harris, Alex, and Brett Harris. Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion against Low Expectations. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2008. Print.

Platt, Dr. Michael. "Myth of the Teenager." Homeschool World. Practical Homeschooling #2, 1 Jan. 1993. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <http://www.home-school.com/Articles/myth-of-the-teenager.php>.