YOU ARE NOT “NORMAL”

Hello once again, today I want to write about the word “Normal” and how it relates to our young ones and by young ones, I am talking about our teenagers who have been pressured into doing things that our society deems “Normal” which ideally is considered wrong. On the next part of this series, I will be talking to full grown adults which also include me.

I will be talking about some of the vices that affect our teens these days. Mind you, I am not a scientist. What I am about to write is what I have observed in my present locale. So please if you know any other vice, feel free to leave them at the comment section of this blog.

1.    Sex

This is one of the most prevalent social vice in our world today. For teenagers, it first starts with someone talking about it and before you know it someone who has no first grade experience with sex begins to explain techniques and lines (from the movies) and before you know it, he or she is being perceived as cool and updated on the topic of sex. But the truth of the matter is, sex is supposed to be (ideally) shared between a husband and a wife that is why we adults call sex, CONSUMMATION. We are cementing the love we have for each other by having sex. If a teenager has sex at that young age, he or she is giving more than what he or she is receiving. When you have sex, you are giving out your self-worth all in the name of fun. Someone will use you as a reference point to others. If a teenager has sex with another teenager, both parties will tell their friends the flaws and the “wows” of the other party. For instance, the boy may talk about how the girl screams in a funny way or the girl may talk about how the boy is not man enough to satisfy her because of his small “package”. These flaws break the self confidence of both parties because just like my favourite lecturer always says in school, “bad news travels fast”. They forget that they are still growing and their bodies are still maturing. Even though your hormones are kicking in and you don’t know what to do, I suggest that you should talk to a responsible person about what you are feeling. I say “responsible” because we have some overzealous adults who prey on vulnerable teenagers all in the name of “giving them a valuable experience”. They are killing your destiny, because when they dump you, the emotional damage will be so much that it will rip you apart. My advice to you is, stay as a virgin. There is nothing in sex as a teenager because it is meaningless. You will only get your heart broken. Condoms may prevent you from STDs but it cannot protect you from a broken heart. Stay as a virgin. I know how ridiculous it is, but you are protecting your precious body and your heart. Heartbreak is not a sweet thing despite the (Taylor Swift) songs.

2.    Smoking

First of all I want to start with what attract teenagers to smoking. It first of all starts with observation from grownups and seniors who are supposed to be their role models. When asked why they smoke, the adults don’t give them a genuine reason they (the teenagers) just think that it is cool to see smoke coming out of someone’s nose and mouth and because these teenagers don’t want to be left out of the cool trend, they join in without knowing the consequences of their actions. The most common and known danger of smoking is lung cancer, but other long term effects include bad breath, decaying teeth, body odour and so on. Smoking may give you the high and the look of being cool, but in the long run, you are only killing your body all in the name of fun. It does not end in smoking cigarettes; you gradually graduate to marijuana and other hard drugs. It has been proven that cigarettes make people older than their age and I have seen it. Someone who is 20 years old has the face of a 30 year old. My advice to you is, now you know the dangers of cigarette smoking, you should try as much as possible to not attempt it because your peers who have started smoking will do all they can to get you hooked to it and once you are hooked, it will take the grace of God to get out of that bondage of smoking. Your life is worth more than a stick of cigarette or a wrap of weed and all the hard drugs this world has to offer.

3.    Drinking

Alcohol consumption is not restricted to adults alone, but our teens have been exposed to alcohol at a very young age by our seniors. When they are drunk they feel confident and they can do and say whatever they want to say without any regrets. Yes, alcohol, one of the bitter beverages that humans will take to give themselves strength or find some semblance of happiness in the bottom of a glass of alcohol. I am sure you are saying “what a nerd” but listen attentively, the beer commercials on television where you see a beautiful lady drinking some wonderfully named brand of alcohol and making all the guys in the room gawk in awe, or where a well built man snaps his fingers at the bar tender and asks for that same brand of alcohol and before you know it, girls and swooning around him, these scenarios don’t happen in real life. The only reason a girl will swoon around a guy who is drinking alcohol in a bar, is to make him spend money on her because when he is drunk (beer goggles), you become vulnerable, all your defenses are down and a woman can work her charms. Same goes for women. Being drunk makes you lower’s your defenses and makes you an easy prey for rapists. And please being drunk doesn’t make you classy, it makes you trashy. The commercials display slogans like “the ultimate in beer” to boast to the viewer that “look our beer has been there for ages, we are the best brand for you” but in retrospect, they are saying “look dude we’ve been making people drunk for years and we’re still gonna be here”. The most notable dangers of drinking are alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis which is the slow deterioration of the liver. The liver is like a sponge that soaks all the poisons that enter our system every day and once the liver reaches its limit, it will start to disintegrate because of the amount of alcohol consumed by the liver. Aside from these harmful effects of alcohol, there is also the psychological and sociological damage which the adverts don’t tell you. As I said earlier, drinking makes a woman trashy and not classy, believe me when I say this and drinking does not make a man a man it only makes him a douche-bag.

Please, abstain from alcohol; you are only destroying your life if you resort to looking for the means to be cool at the bottom of a bottle/glass. For more on alcohol, please scroll through earlier posts on this blog.

There are several other things that the society sees as normal but I am telling you that when you are part of the crowd participating in these social vices, you will remain in the crowd who complain about the society and how things don’t work for them. If you are a teenager and you are participating in these societal vices my advice to you, is to stop and think about your future. You may say that “I am young and that I should live my life like is my last” which is true but you should live your life like is your last by doing what is right and holding yourself accountable to God and yourself. If any of these vices bites you in the ass, you have to hold yourself accountable and think of a way to move forward and dream bigger dreams because social vices are hindrances to your dreams. Stop thinking about yourself and think about how I can change my world. Restricting your thought process to how you can please yourself brings about idleness and idleness is the devil’s workshop. There is more to this life than just you. Bring something to the table. For those of you who have not gotten yourselves involved in these vices, please stay that way and look for how you can affect your generation. And relate with people who share the same view as you do. You might say that “no such person exists in our generation” but you are wrong. There is always someone who will show you the right way of doing things in life. Find something creative to do. Because creative people like Leonardo Da Vinci saw the world differently and made history.

BE DIFFERENT... YOU ARE NOT “NORMAL”

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