Teenage Years

Teenage Years

Today as I write this i am twenty four years old which means one of many things.

I have been a teenager.

What was it like? Brilliant! Well, the first half was, most definitely. I was on constant adventures; camping, lighting controlled fires, climbing buildings that i shouldn't be climbing, the usual capers a rapscallion in his teens should be involved in.

It was in that time i started to watch my sister play rugby each weekend. Id go mainly to meet up with some friends and we'd develop some activities which soon upgraded to shenanigans. Each weekend we were on a mountain or at least next to a field and found wicked things to do. Or we were in a rugby club watching older people get drunk and we'd hog the pool table.

We were truly free, though we rarely realised it as there were still rules in place that we had to bend somehow. It was this group of friends and the surrounding company of loud rugby players (and fans) that helped me increase my confidence. I was doing things and surviving. It kept getting easier.

Until i turned fifteen or thereabouts when i realised that i had quite the crush on one of the girls in the group. I just didn't know what to do about it, so i just played along all friendly like. How timid am I?

One halloween we decided to get a hold of some booze, which we drank. We got drunk. We (two boys and two girls) played spin the bottle. We threw the bottle away and just decided to do proper kisses on each other because it'd happen eventually.

I can't quite remember how clumsy it was. I only remember trying to do it for long enough so it didn't seem like i just wanted to get it over with. I've never been that nervous since.

The four of us are still friendly although we've grown apart. I'd like a drink and a catchup with them.

The second half of the teens are filled with exams, coursework and alcohol. Mainly the two former. I had a whale of a time through all of my teens but i also remember having a mild headache from the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Sixth form.

To a lot of the people that were in the sixth form at the same time as me, i was considered a pain in the arse. I was loud, slightly careless and daft. (I still am to some degree) Every responsibility I had I never realised it's potential as "responsibility" and i just plodded on.

Then i failed my first batch of exams and had to PAY for my re-sits. I remember the worry that wrapped around me, tangling me into a human scribble. I went for a walk up to the highest mountain i could see at the time (Tylorstown tip. Google it) and emptying my lungs, screaming towards my home valley. My, my it didn't half clear my head. I decided to face my responsibilities head on and knuckle down.

I believe that screaming my guts off of that mountain got me into university.

I was still a silly, playful dick-head. I was probably even more annoying to my peers, but i did work harder. I became responsible.

And now Im all grown up.

-ish

*****

There once was a child from the Rhondda,

An introvert, oft given to ponder,

Though I've grow up in taste,

Why should I now waste,

6 weeks of summer no longer?

*****

Dafydd Evans

Adam Gilder