Teenagers not to be misunderstood

A few days ago, I experienced something that I never thought I would experience, a man bleeding, laying face-down on the floor, breathing in his own blood.  I had only seen these types of things on Grey’s Anatomy or any other hospital television drama, not in real life, not at Peet’s Coffee Shop in Castro Valley.  Like in the shows, people had tried to help, but no one really knew what to do.

One person, in fact did know what to do, but the problem was that no one would listen to her, since she was a teenager.  Granted that I and others had the classic thought of, “Oh my God, oh my God, what do we do?” and did not listen to her because they were trying to figure out what to do in this situation, but this girl did not react this way. Her primary concern was the man and his safety during and after he had his seizure.  She tried to tell the grown-ups what needed to be done to protect him.  When he stopped seizing that he needed to be on his side and his head needed to be aligned with his spine, but they would not hear of it.

How could people not have listened to her?  She knew what she was talking about.  Is it because she was a teenager?  This is a question which I have been pondering for some time now.  I have come to the conclusion that adults don’t always listen to adolescents because we are not their equals, not yet anyway.  Adults often dismiss our claims because they usually think that it is nonsense or is not relevant to a situation, but the reality is that we have the right to be heard like anyone else.

Some teenagers understand more about life than adults because of their experiences. It is not about a number, the age. It is about the knowledge and understanding that a person has gained.  The wisdom that a teenager can have is astonishing and extremely inspiring. If I am able to gain a nugget of the awareness that some of my classmates have, I would spread that information to others, hoping that they learn something as well. Adults, all I am saying is that when a teenager tells you something, think about it before you discard it into the trash compartment in your mind because you might find that it can help you. As the man was taken to the ambulance, I thought to myself, “What would have happened if no one had listened to her and tried to move him, causing permanent bodily injury?” People did listen to her after a while, but they should have done so the entire time.