PUBERTY

Adolescence is the age during which teenagers carry out major quests and gradually acquire independence. One of the greatest questions of adolescence regards the future and the crucial decisions a teenager has to make.

Who can determine your future? Who can show you which road to take? Who can help you make important decisions when everything changes with the speed of light? No one, that’s for sure. Your future is an unknown land, which you determine with the daily choices you make. There is no right or wrong, nor an instructions booklet telling you what to do in each phase of your life. You can make several new starts. One place may be very promising before you get there. But once you arrive you may discover that it doesn’t fulfil its promises and that you have to make a whole new start. Or you may discover that it’s given you much more than promised and that it’s opened several new doors for you. You never know if a path is safe before you cross it. You only find that out once you are there and that is called life experience.

It is important, however, to get informed and be exposed to various images and stimuli; to broaden your horizons. Nowadays, thanks to the internet, information is easily accessible. Of course, it is possible that the enormous amount of information confuses you. In that case, your parents and also your teachers can help you by sharing with you their experiences and all the difficulties you may come across. Ask them! Learn from their experiences and create your own path.

Try to identify possible talents. Maybe an academic course is not for you. Try to discern what it is that you like doing. Even if you feel lost or indifferent, deep down you know what satisfies you and what you can achieve if you set your mind to it. Follow the future you want. It is important to realize that first you must be useful to yourself and then to others. Maybe you don’t want to continue with ant studies after you finish school or maybe you change your mind along the way. What’s important is to be flexible, to listen to yourself and to keep trying to broaden your horizons in order to find out what it is that you really want to do in your life.

Bear in mind that, at a great extent, your future is in your hands. Hence, try to make cautious steps and know yourself well enough, in order to create a future that is as close as possible to your wishes.

In collaboration with:

Georgia Vrettou

Ecology & Environment Advisor of the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine

Artemis Tsitsika

Ass. Professor of Pediatrics - Adolescent Medicine, Scientific Coordinator of the Program "PROLEPSIS» ran by the Greek Society of Adolescent Medicine