Being Alright as a Youth

My name, Evie, has made me have preferential treatment in several cases, but it has not spared me from going through the challenges that other youths go through. I have only found preference when in situations that require one individual to receive preferential treatment over others, such as during cake-cutting ceremonies that were being given to individuals randomly. In several cases, I have been preferred because my name is close to Eve. On the other hand, I can relate with all the life challenges that other youths go through, and I can attest that childhood was a better stage of life than being a youth. As a youth, one is expected to be responsible and start taking care of themselves in ways that adults do, even though the resources at an individual’s disposal are not as sufficient as those that adults have. 

Growing up, my friends and I were expected to express ourselves less as we turned to be adolescents than we were expected when we were children. Teenage boys were told to always stop crying because they were becoming “big.” As for girls, I included, we were not told much about the need to stop crying but we saw how the adults around us gave less concern during such moments. My parents are the only older individuals who always seem to care for every problem I tell them. As for other older individuals, whenever I tell them my problem, they first weigh to see whether it is a problem I should be worried about. Those who find my problems to be minute from their perspective often tell me that it is part of life for adulting, and I need to deal with it as an individual.

Therefore, as a youth, I have learned to say that I am doing well even when I am not doing well, and I only tell the individuals close to me the details of my situation. Abdurraqib. (2016) gives a scenario in which individuals, in this case blacks, tell others they are alright because others do not care about their welfare. Blacks have a language amongst themselves when they are not okay, such as saying “I’m working on it” when asked about how they are. However, since others do not care about them, and in other cases, other groups of people want them dead, they have learned to say that they are fine under all circumstances.

From my end, too, I often feel like others care less about youths because of the expectations they have yet the situation of youths does not allow them to meet those expectations. Among my friends, we also have a coded language for times that we are not doing well. When asked how we have been, we are likely to say “I have just been,” and the next person understands that I have not been well. However, when someone who is not among my youth friends and is not my parent asks how I have been at such times, I always tell them that I have been alright, and we carry on with our interactions.