From the desk of a Teen 🖤

My daughter is just about a month away from the big 1-4. And let me tell you, toddlers emotionally break you down in ways you can’t even explain… and then there are teenagers that do the same thing. I’m convinced my sanity is gone and I probably won’t ever get it back. But on a positive note at the same time it’s very exciting to see your child turn into this teenager and start to find herself and mature and get ready to start taking on the world for themselves.

I try and have an open relationship with my daughter, but getting her to open up and talk about what’s going on in her life is like pulling teeth. It’s funny because I don’t think that she thinks I will understand or agree with what she has going on in her life, and I see so much of my teenage self in her, but trying to explain to her that some of the issues and drama that goes on at her age will mean nothing to her in a few years. But just like Myself… she’s going to have to learn the hard way.

So I asked her to be part of my blog… I wanted to give her a voice, her own little way of changing the world. So when I asked her, first of all she didn’t know about the blog, so she thought I was joking, after I showed her what I was up to, she approved ( 5 points for me, I’m cool in my teenagers eyes💁🏻‍♀️). Anyway I wasn’t sure how it was going to go or if she was going to take it serious, I told her to write about whatever she wants.. within the hour she emailed me her blog entry..

So you know my Mom, the Survival of a Suburban Mom-mom. I thought it was about time that you met me, Adriana, her firstborn daughter. Me? I’m an average teenager that wants to change the world. I just don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I had my first experience as an American protester, for 17 minutes, March 14 at 10:00 am. My friends and I put together/convinced over 100 students at our Middle School to walk out with us. And like anyone else in today’s society, I took videos and pictures, and I also posted them on my social media. Some people were jealous that our school was allowing us to walk out. Many other schools around where I live if you walked out you would be expelled, but instead of walking out they had a moment of silence to respect the ones that died in the High School in Parkland, Florida shooting. I get the moment of silence, I do understand what it’s for, but I feel like we are trying to be silenced! I also understand why they didn’t want us to walk out because of our safety,  there could have been another shooting because the walkout was all over social media. I got a significant amount of negative feedback from people that I thought were my friends saying that I did the walkout just to get out of class, which I did not. I want my voice to be heard but no one will listen because “I’m an annoying 8th grader just trying to get out of class”. I ended up being one of  the main people that took videos and pictures, word got around to my teachers that I had a lot of the videos, and I was called down to the office and was told that someone from the head district office called and said that if he had proof that our school participated in the walkout that the word would be spread about our cause. This made me feel hopeful that I am being heard, and that my school supported how myself and my fellow classmates feel.  At the high school in our district, they also participated in the walkout. I don’t really know how I feel about gun laws, there are some people saying that only military should have guns then there are others saying that assault rifles should be banned. All I know is that we have to pay more attention to the signs. I don’t want to end up on the news because of another school shooting, I will continue to do what I can to help stop the gun violence. 🖤

I’m impressed by what she has to say, I didn’t know she felt like this. It opened my eyes to maybe I as a parent should be doing more to help support her. I’m hoping her writing here can open the door to other parents with teens. Give them a common ground like it did for her and I, because I think it’s hard just finding that common ground between parents and teens.

These days are short… and it’s crazy how fast these kids grow up, having to deal with issues like these at such a young age. As a parent you’re constantly worrying and now our kids have to take on the burden as well❤️

I can’t wait to hear more from her… and see where this little journey takes her!