Being a Teenager

My older son will be 13 tomorrow, beginning his voyage into the dreaded teens.

He is very excited about what is really the first of that run of birthdays - 16, 18, 21, 30, 40, 65, (Grandpa Simpson voice on) erm, now let me see I was born in..., erm, Abraham Lincoln!! I truly hope that his teens are a wonderful time for him, and will do everything in my power to make them so.

My overriding memories of being a teenager are awful, I hated it all: School, other teenagers, life in general. I was a very miserable teenager who did not want anything to do with the rest of the world. Thinking about it, I only had one person who I thought of as a friend right through my teens. I only see him rarely now, he is a bit of a nomad, but each time we meet up it is like were never apart, seeming to pick up the conversation where we left off, maybe 5 years previously. I rapidly drove away the rest, picking up a few new ones, mainly centred around bands I was in and people I played Dungeons and Dragons with. By the end of my teens I was bordering on reclusive, I guess. Then it all changed as I entered my 20s, when the girl who became my wife dragged me back into the real world.

I would not relive my teens for a billion pounds.