Being a teenager living in London in the year of 2007

Part 1

"I'm only 14, but I feel like I'm older, it seems I've developed a hunch-back from carrying the world on my shoulders", is what I said to a mate of mine before writing this article. A simple sentence which really does set the mood for the rest of this article. If you haven't already caught the gist of what this article is going to be about, well I'll tell you. It's about being a teenager, more specifically, it's about being a teenager living in London, in the year of 2007 but any teenager can relate to what I'm going to bring forth to you. And as for adults, this should teach you something new about teens.


As I mentioned, I'm 14 currently I'm in year 9 (writing notes: if you could say in brackets what year 9 is equivalent to in Iranian schools, that would be great) and about to pick my GCSE choices for year 10. A big turning point in my life, as what I choose now will effect my life from now on, although you would think this would stress a teen out, it really doesn't. I have so much more on my mind than GCSEs and while granted it is definitely essential and important, I know what I want; Triple Science, Food, French, Business Studies and Religious Studies, along with the obvious compulsory subjects (English, English Lit. and Maths), the only reason why I'm not really caring about GCSEs is because it's too far away to get stressed about, I don't know how everyone deals with things, but I just relax and when something messes up, that is when I deal with it. I prepare for such things but I don't get obsessive and compulsive about them.



So what am I currently worrying about? Take some guesses... done? Now I'm gonna tell you, money, homework, quality of work in school, basketball and a social life. Now how many of those guesses were right? I'm willing to put money on the fact that at least one person reading this was thinking "girls" and "spots" were going to come up. I tend not to worry about girls, I have to thank my borderline over-confidence for that, (something I'll come to later) and spots... heh, I couldn't care less, there seems to be a stigma around spots and a lot of misinformation, many people thinking it has something to do with dirt and what not, and whilst it does, it is not the main reason. Spots come and go; I'm still the same person though.

Okay so, lets go into detail about why I'm worried about the things I am worried about; beginning with money, money is a drug and I am it's addict. Not that I'm materialistic, it's the fact that I love the security that comes with money. I feel I can support myself and others around me when I have a ubiquitous amount of it. Plus, money is essential for going out and enjoying life, and as the adult years of my life loom it is going to be needed for many more things as well, so I'm saving up now. How I hear you ask does a 14 year old get money? Well, I save the lunch money I get; yes, I don't eat at school, mainly because the food doesn't appeal to me (you might as well throw some toxic waste onto a plate, instead of the stygian food they give you, it would be an improvement). So that's £1 a day and I go to school 5 times a week, coming to £5 a week, multiply that by four and we get £20. Multiply that by 12, as there are 12 months in a year and you get a grand total of...

£240!

Great! Not really, it's nice, but I have high aims. Along with random money coming in from time-to-time for events such as the birthdays and money getting from working, writing etc. It becomes a nice little income for a 14 year old. But still, I crave more; I crave more for the drug that is money. So what do I do? I got together with a friend of mine a month back and we drew up a business plan... yes, a business plan... from two 14 year olds. Believe it! So what is our plan? Set up a poker club, this ingenious idea sprouted out when we thought, Harry (the friend I consulted about the business plan) already hosted poker parties at his house, why not make some profit out of the people?

We named it, and we got together some membership papers and what not. How our money comes in is that, our mates who play poker with us will sign up as members, get a card (like a credit card, except with the club name on it) and in return for membership they give us £5, how many kids come to our poker parties? 16. 16 multiplied by 5 is... £80! Straight away, £80 profits in. Added on top of the investments me and Harry put in, (£100 each) to get things started, this will now help us to get the air of professionalism to the club. I went to my trusty friend, adobe Photoshop and designed some poker chips, and a deck of playing cards. The poker chips will be made of the finest material that poker chips can be made from: clay. We ordered £70 worth of chips, and the custom deck of cards came to about £50. Already quite a hole burnt in our pockets, but once the club is up and running, the profit will be immense, with us making profit off selling things within the club such as refreshments, food, etc.

So enough about my plans to become rich and wealthy by 14 and retire and live in the South of France by 16. Homework and the quality of work in school both tie into each other really. I put the upmost effort into my homework and school work, as this year 9 and the following years and very crucial to the rest of my life. I often spend 2 hours on each piece of homework. Then there is basketball, basketball is my third love in life (after family and girls, respectively), I'm in the works of setting up a team at my school, organizing everything as I'm the captain, it's great. Basketball not only has drastically improved my fitness but made me get closer with my mates. Which makes me sound like an emotional pregnant woman, but I don't care. Friends are great things to have.

Finally a social life, whilst balancing, school, basketball and my up and coming business plans, it's hard to remember life exists out of those things. I'm so enveloped in my own things I often forget about my social life, which really effects me in a magnificently bad way. I'm a peoples' person, and if I'm not around people or going out and having a laugh I become more moody than a pregnant woman suffering from antenatal depression. Recently that hasn't been a problem at all; I've been to a series of "sleepover" parties lately. I call them sleepovers because you sleep round the hosts’ house after the party is done. The last party I went to was great, people dancing, people kissing, people crying, people fighting, people laughing, people drinking, people smoking, everything and anything under one roof, all that drama and excitement all around, and I feed off the positive energies. Although this party was a sleepover party, I didn't get a wink of sleep and left the persons house at 8:30 in the morning. A sure sign of an excellent party.

I can imagine some reading the past paragraph and thinking, "PEOPLE KISSING? PEOPLE DRINKING? PEOPLE SMOKING?!", well yes, it happens and I'm sure some of you are in your head judging the what that kind of lifestyle is like, and what kind of person I am and right there, right now I want you people to stop. Kids kiss, kids drink, and kids smoke, just like adults, it has a stigma attached to it because we're kids, but when school, the government and even our parents and demanding us to act like adults instead of children, shouldn't we douse in things that adults do? And some teens do, some don't, it's a personal choice.

- Ali Jami

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