Teenage Ego Is My Mughal Dynasty

 Let me tell you what faith and teenagers have in common: a feeling that they know everything. It's like they eat overconfidence for all three meals. I say this because I'm a teen, and when I think of my past choices, I'm traumatised. God knows how my mother put up with me; no wonder I got hit at times. Sometimes I wonder where we get that sudden "I know everything" feeling from? I noticed it's worse with pre-teens and the ones that just entered their teen years. I understand that every teenager is different, but I think this phase passes us all, and sticks with some. 

My hypothesis for why this phase happens is that, as children, we've idolised all elders around us, once we're a little older, we learn new things, gain new knowledge that maybe the adults don't know. One time when we know something that they don't, we suddenly feel supreme, above them at times, and it gets to a point where we think we're "better and smarter" than them. 

It's also that once you enter high school, the need to stay relevant catches up to you, and we might try to act smarter than we are, feel embarrassed if we don't know something that others our age might know, try to act all 'cool and nonchalant' even though we want to go dance in the rain like the little kids, and are embarrassed to talk about our taste in music or tv shows just because of the thoughts "what might they think?", "Will they think I'm a loser?", "Will they make fun of me?", "Cast me out?". 

And there is one place we unravel, home. We put across all our frustrations and insecurities in the form of anger and try to feel superior by proving the adults at home wrong, because home is the one place where all of us feel important and relevant, and we don't want to lose that. But most of us grow out of it and change over time, so to all the parents out there, this too shall pass.

Parents aren't to blame either for not understanding, they have a lot of pent-up stress and frustration too, some of them aren't in the head space to understand your feelings beyond what you show and what they see. Yes, they were your age once, too, but you have to understand that the older you get, the only feeling our younger years will give us is nostalgia. Once you pass by the problem, whenever someone else is facing the same problem, it doesn't seem like a big deal at all. I can not feel the same rage and frustration a 5-year-old feels when their favourite pencil is lost. I'd look at the scene and be like "she's so cute", I'd be calling the frustration cute and walk off.

In the same way, our parents can't feel the same emotions we're feeling in the situation, for them, it'll always be a kiddy fight or scene. For you, in a few years, it'll be a joke at most. It is proof now that I'm not getting any younger; I have the memory capacity of Dory. Have you ever met a seventeen-year-old Dory before? Now you have. If someone is reading this and doesn't get the context, I'm gonna be real pissed. I think I'll just cry, honestly.

Let's jump back to the topic "home". I feel like home is one of those topics that is least and most talked about. "Home", in my opinion, is a place where I must be accepted for my raw self, minus the layers of makeup and cover-ups. Someplace I know I'd always have a spot, even if I break expensive vases to show my frustration. The one place where I know I won't get outcasted or secluded. But we must also remember that a house is not a home. A home is your own personal sanctuary, where you feel peace and all the burden is off your shoulders. Don't get me wrong, a home doesn't need to be a roof with four walls; it can be a person, too. I'm happy to say I'm surrounded by these people, touchwood!

But I'm not saying everyone passes the "I know everything" phase. Some get bad, bad. You know what some are like? I personally think they're like Chhota Bheem, except the dishoom dishoom part. Always stick their noses into issues unrelated to them and take credit for making it "better". Like, who the heaven asked you for any help? But they still do it because they're Bheem and the "plot" is well, them. But well, teenage ego is my Mughal dynasty. But the people who still act like that phase, they should've been buried with the Mughals. 

Honestly, I have the memory of Dory and the emotional age of a YA protagonist in deep shit. If you don’t get the context of this post, I’ll cry, disappear for two days, and then act like nothing happened. Classic teen behaviour, right?