Teen Dating

By Erica (Age 14, St. Paul's)

After love is stripped off of all fancy flowers, romantic poems, and handwritten cards, it may be just a mixture of chemicals producing the sensation of love. Pheromones, serotonin and dopamine are all substances produced in our brain in order to trigger the brain's pleasure centre. However, there should be more than chemicals behind love, right? It would be a real disappointment to hopeless romantics if they found out Romeo fell for Juliet just because he was blinded by serotonin.

When you flip open any random teen magazine, you are sure to find uncountable articles, tips, and quizzes about dating and love. They may be tips on how to flirt, quizzes about finding 'the right one' and articles about having a crush. Although girls started 'going steady' with guys in high school in the old days, their main motive was to marry and start a family. However, social norms have changed since then and dating no longer translates into securing a husband, yet the fact that most people date during their teenage years cannot be changed.

There are numerous reasons why teens date, but one of the most obvious reasons is because you like the person in a 'more than friends' way. We are biologically programmed to be curious about the opposite sex when we hit our teenage years and this cannot be stopped since this is how we were created. Therefore, it is safe to say that one of the reasons why teenagers date is due to the onset of growth hormones and other biological mechanism. Also, the human is a more social species when compared to, say, lions. We are afraid of loneliness and cannot survive on our own. This is why communities are formed in the first place. Humans crave for the presence of other fellow beings - to fend off wild animals in the old days and to share your life with in modern times. A partner can provide good company and security - both physically and mentally - and intimacy. A partner can be trusted in a way friends can't be since the level of devotion, trust and faith placed in the person is different. Teenagers who have a girlfriend/boyfriend will have someone to trust and lean on.

In addition, having a partner may increase your 'cool' factor at school. Although this is a wrong dating mentality, teens may gain popularity and recognition from peers due to having a girlfriend/boyfriend. Teens may also cave under the peer pressure of having a girlfriend/boyfriend in order to fit in with the rest of the crowd. Either way, this is falling in love for all the wrong reasons and may bring considerable damage to both parties.

One of the main concerns about teenage dating is the question of maturity. At what age should a teen date? Can a really mature child date at eight? In my opinion, the age limit varies according to the teen and how he/she behaves. I believe that if the teen shows responsibility and self-control, it is fine for him/her to date. On the contrary, if a teen has no self-discipline and low self-protection skills, he/she should not be allowed to date since the teen may not be able to handle both the physical and mental consequences of being in a relationship.

The age-old behavior of humans cannot be changed overnight and it is hard to avoid falling in love at a certain point in our teenage years. Parents may object to the notion of their child having a relationship, yet the parents themselves were once young. I'm sure that my mom and dad did have dates when they were teenagers. However, the most important thing is to be mature, date in a responsible way, and not cave into peer pressure.

My Sister's Lessons

By Erica (Age 14, St. Paul's)

When I turned seven, I began pestering my parents for an addition to our family. One minute I would whine for a Labrador, the next moment a cat, and sometimes I would even ask for a lizard or a rat. However, the patronizing replies were the same every time: Dad’s allergic to dogs, Mom hates cats, and over my dead body am I going to allow a lizard in my home. Period. Since my helper wouldn’t play with me, I had to resort to talking to my stuffed animals and myself when I got bored. The problem was, I wanted company. I wanted somebody to share my toys with, to read stories with and to play dress up with. So when my parents asked whether I wanted a sibling, I said yes quickly without much consideration. At age seven, responsibility was a vague concept to me and the idea of having a sibling simply meant having a playmate. However, little did I know that this ‘yes’ brought me a lifetime of love and annoy.

Originally, I was given the honor of naming my sister. However, after too many failed attempts and disapproving sighs from mom and dad over the weird names that I had chosen, they decided to call her Bernice. I was in charge of name-calling, but that’s another story. The name Bernice can be dated back to the time of 40 AD. She was the daughter of a man who was killed by an angel and was the mistress of numerous kings. That’s a pretty weird origin for your child’s name. However, it also means victorious in Greek, which is the most puzzling part. The only things that my sister ever wins are arguments and fights with me. And that’s because I purposely let her win. She taught me how to hold my tongue and swallow the sharp words I was about to blurt out. She taught me how to forgive and to ask for forgiveness.

Another thing that my sister taught me was sharing. Not only sharing toys and the TV, but sharing mom and dad. After spending half of my childhood basking in the love and full attention of my parents, there was suddenly someone else whom they love dearly. There was this person that they will dedicate as much love to as they did to me and obviously I was jealous. I didn’t like the idea that there will always be somebody else on their minds and in their hearts. For a few weeks, I would constantly glare at my sister with burning hatred and loathing. However, I soon realized that this was ridiculous. Of course I would have to share my parents with her and in fact, if they don’t even love her, I should be scared. I soon realized that I didn’t have to share my parents' love with my sister; their heart simply grew bigger to contain the both of us.

My sister also possesses the uncanny ability to make me feel guilty even when she was the misbehaved one. Every time after a fight, when I see her teary eyes and hear her pitiful sobs, I just simply had to forgive her. If you can stare into those eyes without melting, there's something wrong with you. The way she sees the world is just so simple. A butterfly or a bird can make her happy for the whole day while we’re blindly chasing fame and fortune. The world is such a beautiful place through a child’s eyes.

While I’m not ready to burn all of my Justin Bieber posters and CDs just to show my love for my sister, she really changed my life. She taught me how to love, to share love, and to be loved. She can explain problems that take me ages to solve with that simple mind of hers. Some day I’ll throw away all my Bieber stuff if she wants me to; but right now, she has to put up with a crazy sister who randomly dances to 'Baby'. But when you come to think of it, that's not actually a bad thing.

Yuggles

By Erica (Age 10, Chinese International School)

Editor's Note: This is a story based on Paul Jennings' Funniest Stories. 


See, no one had ever seen a yuggle before. And no one's ever seen one since. Where they came from and how they exploded has never been explained. Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I'd better start from the beginning. This boy called Pockets was visiting his little sister Midge in hospital...

Midge had a really bad sickness that even the doctors in the hospital could not cure. The doctors said it was called Obis, and they were trying to find a cure for it but so far, nothing. Midge was a red-cheeked, blue-eyed, happy person, but as she lay on the snow-white sheets of the hospital bed, she had pale cheeks and faint blue eyes that were almost white. Pockets was crouching beside Midge. He was repeating over and over again, "You'll be all right Midge, fine, fine, fine!" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself instead.

Because I saw he was so sad, I invited him to go pick mushrooms. That was his favorite activity: picking mushrooms. We went to Yuggle Forest. No one knows why it was named that. We picked thousands of different mushrooms: death cap mushrooms and honey mushrooms. Then we saw a mushroom that we had never seen before. It was big, purple, and the stem was red and fat. They were growing on the roots of a honey oak tree and was covered with soft moss. We picked four of the eight and washed it in the stream.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

When we got back to the hospital, we started playing with the new and strange mushrooms. A passing doctor stopped and stared at the mushrooms in our hands. "This... this is the cure... how... you can..." Pockets yelled with joy. I, for one, didn't know half of what the doctor had said. Then Pockets turned to me and said, "This is the cure for Midge!" Then he turned and followed the doctor.

The doctor squeezed the purple juice out of the mushroom into a glass. Then he went to Midge's bed and made her drink the juice. Then he fed the stem and the cap to her. Within a week, Midge was sitting up on her bed, talking and even laughing. And me? Pockets and I were heroes. We had found a type of mushroom that could cure a sickness that was spreading around the world! Even now, there were thousands of orders for the mushrooms. Scientists named it Yuggles, after the forest where it came from. It is now a cure for any type of sickness. I still come to the forest to tend to the Yuggles, and yet, I still have one of the mushrooms that Pockets and I first picked. I will pass it on to my children.