Like teenagers again

Some friends of ours slept in the car the other week, coming back to the grandparents’ place after a great night and finding themselves locked out. It can’t get more teenager than that – sleeping the last few hours of the night in a car outside your parents’ place. Fabulous.

That’s exactly what we need to do more of. All of us. Enjoying ourselves, taking time to just be, to have fun with people we like hanging out with. Exactly like we (may or may not!) have done as teenagers. If you didn’t, grab a second chance. Celebrating friends’ 50th at the moment, we and lots around us have that freedom coming back now with kids looking after themselves.

But it doesn’t matter if you, reading this, have kids or not. If you’re in your 20’s, 30’s or 40’s, in a high-pressure career or retired – it doesn’t matter at all. The point is, as we’re so busy becoming responsible adults, doing the things we’ve seen others do as adults, we forget. We forget that the most important thing is to keep your childlike curiosity alive, to tap into your teenage-like enjoyment and laissez-faire now and then.

What’s something teenagish you can do today? An hour of something “don’t care what others think”, whether it’s having a beer on the balcony in your undies, trashing in front of your favourite TV show with a big tub of ice cream, engulfing yourself in a book in your PJs all day not having showered for days, swapping chewing gum (used) with your partner, spending hours experimenting which sound you can get out of an empty bottle, dropping in uninvited for a cuppa at a friend’s, sleeping on the beach – whatever. A bit gross, a bit stupid, a bit embarrassing. Do it!

Take the best of the teenage years you can come up with, and add little doses into everyday life – leaving out the tormenting, painful other parts of being a teenager, how good is that?

It’s a good thing taking on responsibility, and good on us all for spending hours keeping the world going around. But we end up being SO serious, putting so much pressure on ourselves and others. What if it didn’t matter, just for a bit? Giggling already, thinking of the odd things you’ll all be adventuring into this week… have fun!!