Adolescents
...ther than being themselves. Being homosexual has become a taboo in today’s society. It is an unwritten rule: there is no room to accept homosexual people, especially during adolescence. That is why a lot of young adults choose to hide it. However, there are still some youths, which are different from the rest, that choose not to hesitate in revealing it. They choose. It is all about choosing, making choices with and without thinking about the consequences, making decisions on their own without anyone interfering. “It is not a matter of can and cannot, it’s a matter of will and will not, everything is a choice, choose wisely” – Unknown What is it to choose? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it is to ‘decide what you want on a range of things or possibilities’. Even though it sounds so simple, it is extremely complex. Every choice has a consequence, and it is up to oneself whether or not one wants to think about it. Choices made during adolescence can be of great matter, despite not seeming so. First, not choosing is in itself a choice. Making choices and ‘trade-offs’ during adolescence are unavoidable – ‘trade-offs’ meant as in the sense of a sacrifice made in one area to obtain a benefit in another. It is the adolescent’s choice. In the end no one can tell them what to do, although some people, such as parents, might provide guidance and advises. It can be a major change for the youngster to enter this stage of his/her life, since they had their parents making choices for them before that. Now it is all upon their shoulders. They are forced to make choices, and the result of the choice varies from youngster to youngster. It depends on whether they are outer- or inner-directed. The peer-group will have a great influence on the adolescent if he/she is outer-directed. Outer-directed people are flexible and willing to accommodate others to win approval, while inner-directed people live as they were taught in childhood: they tend to be confident and perhaps also rigid. However, I have seen that adolescents today are mostly outer-directed. It is necessary to make a decision to develop an understanding of the world we live in, to see clearer where we have come from, where we are, where we are going. There also is the need to be critical and to master the tools of thought. And last but not least, there is the necessity to prepare for ones future. An example of this, adolescents with parents that are divorced can have a hard time choosing whether he or she wants to be with the mother or the father – without hurting anyone’s feelings. It becomes necessary to think about the consequences. “We don’t grow unless we take risks. Any successful company is riddled with failures” – James E. Burke The confusing number of possibilities, offers and demands from various sides can really make the youngster feel helpless. I have noticed that the mass media has a great influence on the adolescent’s behaviour which is just as much positive as it is negative. It is extremely important that the adolescent becomes aware of the world around him/her, and this is done through mass media. During this period of one’s life, there will be a wide range of offers and possibilities, and this is the time where the adolescent really has to think about the consequences. These offers and possibilities can be things such as drugs, crime, violence, and sex. Alas, we see too often that youth makes wrong decisions when it comes...