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We all face the unenviable task of having to grow up. If life is so complicated growing up, how is it you get to do everything once you do grow up? Maybe it's reward for going through those troubled spots? Acne, 1st menstrual cycles, braces, glasses, wearing the wrong clothes, not having the right watch, not making the team, having to work because your dad or mom left and you have to take care of your siblings, walking through metal detectors to get to class, teen pregnancy, drugs, guns, fights, failing, suspension, term papers, an unusual amount of hair growth in places you didn't know you had on your body, AIDS, poverty, peer pressure, prom dates, boyfriends, girlfriends, not making the team, making the team and your best friend didn't, gang violence, you know, an average day in the life of any teenage or young adolescent kid.
Get through that and you get a driver's license, a job with real money, maybe you're lucky enough to get to college and then there's a whole other list of stuff you're going to love and of course hate, girlfriend or boyfriend that you have a real connection with, not just having sex under the bleachers during the bonfire at homecoming.
The complications come because of stupidity, environments, hormones and egotism. All of life has complications. Adults, at times, and as a generalization, are just better equipped to handle the complications than a kid.

Learn more about this author, Jimmy Ettele.
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