That period of time between my 13th birthday and my 20th one was so nice while it lasted. Those were the wonderful years during which I knew everything about everything. All anyone had to do was ask me. I was happy to tell them what was right, how they should feel, and what they should do in any given situation. I knew more than my parents, more than my teachers, more than everyone. I had an opinion on everything, and I was certain that everyone not only wanted to hear my opinion, but they should also agree with it.
Looking back, I have no idea how anyone could stand to be around me, and I surely can’t see why anyone would have wanted to have a conversation with me! I know now that I was an arrogant, but very normal, little brat who knew nothing. This “know-it-all” attitude seems to affect almost all teenagers. But no one could have convinced me back then that I wasn’t nearly as smart as I believed I was. I was so far gone that I even pointed out to my best friend’s father that his parenting skills needed improvement.
The puzzling thing is that I don’t know what happened to all that knowledge. It mysteriously disappeared when I was about 21 years old, when I started the adventure of real life. Real life, with real problems and real responsibilities, knocked me on my tail. It was quite a rude awakening finding out that I wasn’t all-knowing like I had believed I was. I quickly realized that I barely knew anything, and I definitely didn’t have all the answers for my problems and certainly not for anyone else’s problems. I basically came to the realization that I was an inexperienced, wet-behind-the-ears kid. And it might just be time to start listen to the advice of those who were smarter than me, which was just about everyone.
I don’t understand what it is about those teenage years that make us feel that we are so smart, that we are never wrong, and that everyone else is stupid. Maybe it’s just that we have to go through thinking that we have all the answers to learn that we actually know very little. One of my favorite Don Henley songs, “Heart of the Matter,” contains the following line: “Everything I thought I’d figured out, I have to learn again.” This is the perfect description of how it feels when you come out of that teenage fog of imagined intelligence.
