You’re in your room on your bed. Clutching the envelope with your name and address right on the front. Holding an envelope has never made you feel so proud. You rapidly open it and take out the contents inside and unfold the paper. In bold black you see, numbers. Smiling, you never realized how amazing it is to get your first paycheck.

Independence is the ultimate goal of adolescence. The feeling of buying something with your own money, going out alone with friends and so on is what we crave.

“Yeah, everyone just wants to feel free and be on their own sometime during their life,” said Sophomore Carlos Duarte.

Although being an independent teenager has it perks, it also contains many down sides. Teenagers who attend high school and have a job tend to be extremely more stressed rather than a teen without a job.

You know how parents say to enjoy your childhood and teenage years while you can? Well, independent teens never get a chance to enjoy it if they have a job and are attending school. They have limited time and have to mature quicker.

“I think teens should wait off on jobs because most of my friends who are only 16 already have jobs and some are doing the ACE program as well and I can see that they are super stressed and are always cramming and never have time for anything anymore,” said Junior, Layla Valenzuela.

Lastly, teenagers are slowly taking jobs from adults and people who have families and bills to pay whereas most of us are just working jobs to lavish ourselves.

For deeper examples of teen independency, click the link below.

http://www.teenhelp.com/adolescent-development/teen-independence.html