The shifting landscape of the glacier like mind

As people around me age, and mature, I get to study people’s thoughts and behaviour in the social context, while myself scrapping the surface of the teenage year limbo. This article deals with the physiological state of my peers and certain aspects I thought should be brought forth as a centrepiece of discussion about the much tabooed mental health.

Dear readers,

The number of days we have been outside our mother's womb is not a good measure of anything. Neither our age nor our level of maturity or any other thing. Yes, it still forms the base of mapping our physical growth and development and also assists as a flawed metric for the development of mind, intelligence and physical capabilities, as well as bodily developments. I believe, everyone has their body clock, which is like a system clock that ticks and tocks, and we age according to our environment, food habits, lifestyle, and experiences that influence our health and mind. Every birthday to me now is a call from the distant past and brings a glimpse of the future, though years seem to pass faster than ever before. I was quite excited to turn 13 because that number defined my limits. It put restraints on my learning and my progress, though I bend the laws and norms, to achieve many things, I have always been tormented with the thought of not being able to stand up tall and look face to face with all troubles and every other face. Thousands of people have written passionately and knowledgeably about -

Age not being a barrier in our lives. It's just a flawed number that puts a wrong impression on the mind and the psyche.

The agenda of this article of mine is to delve into the lives of those who are facing a coming-of-age crisis. I wish to tribute and I wish to address this writing to them.

Whenever a crime takes place in our society, we blame the criminal. But no one notices when the criminal is taking birth in an innocent mind, and how society sows the seed of hatred and violence into the minds, to force them in pursuit of wrong. That is reality, and every one of us, is directly or indirectly, involved or vulnerable to it. Gandhi Ji ignited our spirits with a revolutionary idea, we never understood, but the flickers of the idea still live on, when he said to hate the crime and not the criminal. Alas! We live in a world where peace lovers, are now dragged into dirty communal politics, and they were once assassinated or killed in name of peace.

To friends my age...

To start it off, I love you. Because you are deserving of love. I can understand how it feels when you suddenly get the power to understand the world around you and want to toy with it, but it isn’t any playground, we are powerless here. Well, take this age as an opportunity to develop the maturity needed to understand the world and increase and hold onto one's power. I can assure you, once gone, this opportunity would never return, and you would yearn for a second opportunity. The teenage years are when a person develops the base of their character, personality, and political ideology, amidst other things. Though I am not worthy to pen this down, according to some, with the virtue of my age, I would still very much like to do justice to my words and thoughts.

Recently I have been feeling that, because of all the hormonal and psychosomatic changes in one’s body during teenage years, they tend to assume that they are adults. They start behaving that way. They all of sudden need lovers and partners, and they start watching movies, not at all for them. This age has no fear of influence and can be very well motivated. I know many in my friend Circle, who are addicted to blue films. And they have actively supported this and also encouraged their younger friends, and other students in the school to participate in those activities, human curiosity drove others into this vicious spiral of lies, betrayal, addiction, pain, mental suffering, unnecessary bodily changes and a chain of chronic mental illnesses like depression, addiction, and mood swings. It pains me too, to see my peers in such a state.

Negativity spreads and is not contained, and hence everyone shall be contaminated, but if you stand still and bring out the luminescence of positivity, then it can surely enlighten your surrounding and cast away the darkness of negativity.

I lost many friends because I actively protested and opposed them, and then I caught a few and their parents got to know, and the whole network was found out. It was difficult for me, but it was necessary too. The school is a mini society, it works in the very same way, with all the diverse students, and the administrative hierarchy above them, and their thoughts and dreams and examinations and voting for different roles and social interactions and connections. Those who are blessed with formal schooling should enjoy this.

Love will find its way whenever it has to. Good friends, trustworthy people, and helpful peers who love to talk are friends and not lovers. Yes, the trade of feelings and emotions does take place, but in a friendly manner. Nothing to be dissatisfied about, or to be sad about. Enjoy making friends. I can understand, it is problematic for some to go out into crowded places, or to speak to people, but sometimes coming out of your comfort zone, the outcome can surprise you with good friends too.

I have also observed an alarming pattern. Children follow their parents and try to copy them. A person in their Teenage years nowadays acts completely like adults, and children of ages 7–9, act rather much like their adolescent counterparts. This makes me think we are ageing faster than ever, this early maturity, that is undercooked and imperfect is detrimental for a child. One of the protagonists of the story is digital media and the type of content that is being consumed. It makes it so, that certain content is more appealing to children, at the cost of being age appropriate. As if they are trapped, in this endless feedback loop, run on short-term dopamine secretion, which has huge negative impacts on their brains, and can cause life-threatening damage. Different countries exercise their soft power politics over the digital media, and children are becoming heavily influenced by them, and their national propaganda, without much knowledge of the history, culture, social impact or anything related to the context, leading to a biased and self-perceived wrong image of things, which can cause great harms in the future. When age restrictions are made and enforced so strictly since ancient times, and so much thought has gone behind it, hence I believe that it should prevail. Another reason for this occurrence is the lousy and improperly assessed age limit for certain films, series and documents.

Rather I would like to advise you to spend more time with the elderly at home. They have chests full of priceless memories and experiences, their knowledge can give you a headstart in life, and also teach you important lessons, while you can help prevent their ageing and also maybe reverse it. I would help both of you. It can improve the mental state of the aged and improve their emotional status. Words are clogged in their throat but they often have none but their handy diary and the wall to speak to. It is our duty towards them, and also an opportunity for us, to get a first-hand account of history.

A small recap -

• Enjoy the time, it won’t stop nor return.
• Love is universal and beautiful, and it’s everywhere, just don’t be demanding and be grateful.
• Your soulmate awaits you as eagerly as you do.
• Please abstain from wrong practices such as consumption of addictive substances and drugs, watching blue films and others.
• Kindly listen to your parents or guardians.
• Be attentive to elders and responsible
• A sense of responsibility is important, but maturity is in, analysing a problem, before plunging into it.
• Don’t accept philosophical garbage that sounds nice, and has beautiful words, it is just a conspiracy to damage your mood.
• Please fact-check things before accepting it, because you might assume something wrong.
• Please stick to the guidelines.
• Before you say anything, please think twice, and don’t use words you don’t know.
• Anything you put out in the public sphere, is not your property anymore, so be careful about what you choose to reveal about yourself. Information is wealth, you have a big responsibility in safeguarding yours.

Thank you so much for reading so far. I have been wanting to write this for a long time now, because this thought had been taking up a big portion of my head space, and I wished to share these alarming signs with all. I have discovered this pattern, I don't wish the negativity to spread and breed in our minds. Hope you found this insightful.