Limbo

Through Teenage into

Adulthood, a process of
growing up
Ekoparna Datta Ray
XII-F
Roll no.:48
‘Is this real life, is this just fantasy,
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality' –
These lines from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody can be
interpreted as the most apt definition of an inevitable
void in any person's life- teenage.
The first few golden years of life, it is good, right?
Flowers, fairytales and food. Yeah, that kind of won’t
last. In a few years you’re going to be catapulted into
a state of unavoidable mental and physical
transition, almost like limbo, because you enter a
child and leave, grown up and scarred for life. Just
kidding, you leave an adult. But don’t worry, I’m
here to make it easier for you, since I’ll be exiting
Limbo in a few days' time. Trust me, you’ll need this.
Year twelve of your life is coming to an end and as
you cut the cake to welcome your thirteenth year,
BOOM! Welcome to Limbo my dear friend, we have to
get to work right away since the neurons in your
brain start getting pruned almost as early as the first
second you enter your teenage years. The amount of
gray matter (cell bodies) reduces in brain scans over
this period. This means that whatever you do or
learn in this period becomes particularly established
in your brain. The advantage of pruning is that the
brain becomes more efficient. But, pruning can also
lead to the onset of mental illnesses since it
highlights the faults in neural circuitry. You will be
particularly sensitive about your surroundings and
that nasty
remark made by your classmate towards you will
hurt and impact more than it did before, or being
left out from a group activity will probably hurt more
than physical pain. You will be able to form better,
more sentimental bonds. You will be able to think
better and understand situations around you better.
You’ll have better solutions to your problems. This
starts to take place since you will need these skills
later during adulthood, where to go about life, you
will need to form bonds with people. Dopamine, the
feel good hormone in your brain will be at an all time
high, thus keeping your energy levels high always.
You will develop your own taste in things, you will
form your own opinions, have liking towards certain
things and a dislike for other things.
As a teenager you have to cope both with changes in
your body as well as new feelings of attraction—to
and from other people. And while, you’ll be getting
and experiencing more freedom, it has its downside
as well. These new feelings can give rise to lots of
“sexual policing” of others’ behaviour (especially
online), sexual harassment, inappropriate behaviour,
sexualization and objectification of girls, and
homophobia, especially for boys.
Individuation is the process of becoming more
independent and autonomous while staying
connected to loved ones. Teens often seem to push
against parents, but if you look closely, it’s usually
over superficial matters, like pop culture. The same
will happen to you. You will fight with your parents
and rebel but as you grow up you will realise the
reasons were petty. The ages from 12-15 is the period
of greatest biologically-driven disequilibrium but also
a period of great potential. How parents navigate this
time with their teens—celebrating their power,
enjoying them, appreciating their gifts, scaffolding
their development, and mitigating their risks—has a
huge impact on setting their direction on a steady
course into adulthood. Towards the end of limbo,
your brain cells will go through a process of renewal
and expansion similar to that of a system update on
your cell or computer. And as you pass through that
phase, my dear friend you finally leave limbo and
enter into a whole new world of experiences, stories
and journeys…adulthood.