Why age is not just a number

People often say 'age is just a number', but really, that's not true. With different ages come different responsibilities, friends, feelings and expectations. 

Today is my 15th birthday, and I'm feeling a way I've never felt before about getting older. In the past, I always looked forward to the future with excitement. I still do: I can't wait to have kids, go to work, earn money etc. I think part of the excitement about growing up comes from being free from school, because when you're at the age where you go to school, life can be very repetitive. 

Sure, you go out with friends, have holidays and do different things, but at the end of it all, you still have to go to school again. And I think the prospect of being free to move away or get a job you love, and not being controlled by other people so much, is very appealing to the majority of people - including me. So I've always looked forward to the later years of being a teenager, because with age comes freedom. 

However, I don't think anyone appreciates how much of a milestone being fifteen is. It's ¾ of the way to 20, and it's the gate into the clichéd years of young adulthood: you know, learning to drive, going out with friends - being mature but not an adult. However, when you turn fifteen you're also saying goodbye to childhood - or at least that's how I feel about it. 

I've been starting to get career talks at school, and I have to know what I want to do Post-16 by this Christmas. Not to mention that I have a little job now, and the pressure is on to do the most so that I can get lots of things to put on my CV. And although I have always been excited about the future, now that 'the future' is beginning, it's pretty scary. We had an assembly at school the other day about apprenticeships, and it hit me that some people my age will have real jobs secured for them this time next year. In a few weeks we'll be meeting university and college representatives, and local employers who will be looking for good first impressions. I think it is all very sudden and quite intimidating. It makes me quite sad that the innocent, responsibility-free part of my life is soon to be over. 

But I think everyone feels this at some point during their teenage years, and you get over it. It can be a very important part of someone's life, that realisation. It can remind you to take each day as they come, and remember that, while you are a person with goals, you are also a teenager. 

I think that in terms of life goals and careers, our generation is the most driven - or at least, that's the way it seems to be from my point of view. Of course, every generation has those people who have always known exactly what they want to do and have, extraordinarily, succeeded in every goal they have ever had. 

However, I do believe Generation Z (1997 - 2012) have been forced to be the most goal and career-orientated people. Inflation has meant that money is more important than ever, and we have seen it ourselves as we have grown up. Just the other day I was talking to my friends about how you used to be able to get a Freddo for 20p, and now they're £1! Knowing about these things makes us more aware of how we will have to work very, very hard to even reach a comfortable quality of life when we're older. I do babysitting to make some money, and I save 60% of what I earn, whereas my mum said she never saved anything when she was my age. 

Another thing that I think is impacting us, and you can see this as having either a good impact or a bad impact, is social media. I find that I'm comparing myself to people older than me - not in terms of appearance (that's for another blog), but material things. When I watch videos, I look at people's houses and think to myself I want to live like them when I'm older, even though they're twenty years older than me and it's a completely unrealistic comparison. However, I see it as a good thing. I think it gives me ambition, and while I know very well that money is even close to being everything, I see how important it is. So I write these blogs. So that I can say to my future employer, "Look, I was working hard from the time I was thirteen". And I focus at school, even though some days I'm bored out of my mind, but I need good grades because otherwise I'm going nowhere. My ambition is one of my proudest qualities. 

So as I turn 15, and as all the 2009 babies will be turning 15 this year, I will try to remember to balance the urge to work hard and the urge to enjoy my childhood while it lasts - and you should too.