7 ways which prove that I work with teenagers

I admit, I started teaching at the age of 25, right after getting out of college. This means that I haven’t had much experience in the real world – I mean “office” world. This also means that after 15 years of teaching, I still feel like I am … 25.

Whereas, my 40 something year old friends and family members sound more distinguished and mature with age… I am still stuck in the "teenage phase." 


Here a just a few things that prove that working with teenagers can be very very annoying :-) 

1. You start to sound like them.

I am not sure when it started but I have noticed that I often use vocabulary which … well… is not a 40 –year- old woman vocabulary. I frequently answer with “cool” or call people “dudes” and my worst - refereeing to a “gig” rather than an event. What is more, my text messages (despite my logical and moral opposition) have started to include “bae”, “YOLO” and even an occasional “wtf.” (And yes, that one I am really not proud of.)  

2. You never know if they are secretly saying something naughty.

While it’s true that I am fairly knowledgeable about the current slang (I mean, if not the students than my son always had an ample supply of new and unusual words), the teenage dialect is an ever-changing thing. I can never really keep up. So, when I ask my students what they did over the summer and one of them says, “I went bowling,” I am forced to wonder if the giggles from his classmates are because “bowling” is the newest code word for something else – drugs, sex, bingeing on video games. Who knows? I am certain, however, that half of the time they are enjoying my questioning look.

4. You question every fashion choice.

Yeah, this one I have not conquered yet. It is connected to a social media and the account settings. In a way, I want my students to feel that I am approachable and have nothing to hide…yet, those pictures on Facebook from 20 years ago showing me wearing an NKOTB t-shirt and pink jeans – are now just laughable. And without a doubt, the students have seen it. Becoming part of a joke that they undoubtedly create can be just simply awful. Not to mention the day when my H&M dress is identical to one a 16-year-old Alena wore last Tuesday …Yeah, look on Alena’s face as she was approaching me in the green military tunic and staring at the identical one I was wearing was just priceless.

5 You get horrid pop songs stuck in your head.

I have read once that a truly happy 40-year-old listens to the same music he or she did when they were teenagers… Well, I did throw away the NKOTB tapes but my Enrique Iglesias will always be mine. It is, however, my choice to listen to him over and over… it is something different when I am going about my business, having a perfectly lovely day, when all of a sudden I realize that I have been singing Into You by Arianna Grande for the last half hour – or Adele It’s me…It never fails. I hear them in class, I hear them during the breaks and even on the bus on the way to school – and it is impossible to get them untucked.

6. You find yourself saying, “When I was your age…” way too much.

Again, the age factor creeps up. I want to feel connected and more in tune with the teenager that I teach. Consequently, I find myself pulling my experiences back to them with a “when I was your age…” which immediately stuns me as I realize that my son is their age or even older. Teenagers can never imagine that I was ever their age. And even if I were, things were so much different waaaayyyyy back then that my stories are completely irrelevant. Hence, “when I was your age…” is often followed by son’s reply: “you mean, during the dinosaur age?”

7. You don’t know whether to baby them or tell them to grow up.

This is where I am really lost, double lost if I think of my son too (whom I have just had the pleasure of visiting for the weekend at college.) This is the paradox of the not-quite children, not-quite-grown-up people known as teenagers. One minute I just want to give them a hug and say that all will be just fine because after all they are kids. But the next minute I want to pound them with a frying pan while screaming how irresponsible and immature they are.  I mean someone should teach them that it is about time they got their act together because life ahead is rough. At the end of the day I am more exhausted then they are… maybe a bit schizophrenic from going back and forth from the not-quite-children and not-quite-grown-up attitude.

Despite all of this, I wouldn’t change working with them for an “office” job. I mean, thanks to the teenagers, I have tapped into the fountain of youth. After all, you are only as old as you feel…hence am still a very happy 25 year old.