What is an adolescent?

The first incorrect assumption that must be cleared up about this term is that adolescence is an age period. Yes, typically people move through adolescence sometime in their teen years, but that being said it isn't the age that defines the term it is the change. Adolescence is the time period, short or long where one moves from being a child to an adult. It is when some life experience causes us to view ourselves not as the center of the world, but a part of the world; a part that has a specific role.

Adolescence is rocky because for the first time, we are aware of ourselves and in that awareness comes unsureness. We aren't sure how we fit into the world. As I look at my 8 month old son, I realize that the stage he is going through right now mimics the stage he will go through later on in his adolescence. Right now he is discovering the world. What happens when I drop my bottle on the ground? What happens if I yell in my crib? What does that dirt on the ground taste like? He is discovering the world because he feels the security to do so since he knows that his dad and I will be there as a safety net. When he is going through adolescence instead of discovering the world as it relates to him, he will be discovering himself as he relates to the world. What group do I want to fit in in high school? How do I want to act in groups? How do I want my teachers to perceive me? What kind of identity do I want to build for myself? Hopefully, if I do my job as a parent, that he will feel secure to make sound decisions while he creates this identity that will go with him in some form or another the rest of his life.

Adolescence is the time when we must learn about ourselves because if we don't know ourselves, we can't figure out where we fit in relation to the world, and therefore won't function successfully as part of the world.

Whatever time period we finally get to know ourselves is our adolescence. I've seen an 8 year old move swiftly through adolescence to adulthood at a young age and I've seen 27 year olds seem to be stuck in adolescence. They haven't had to figure out who they are in relationship to the world yet. So, in sum, it isn't the age that matters, it the switch in our perspectives. Adolescence is the journey to discovering who we are in relationship to the world.