AN ESSAY FROM A TOP AS LEVEL ENGLISH STUDENT

Improving Family Relationships

In your adolescence you will face many changes and challenges, your hormones change and you will suffer from an incurable case of teenage angst. The world will seem like a dark and dreadful place to the lonely teenager, which is why building a stronger bond with family members and getting on with them more successfully will help you get through it.

It might sound profound, but your parents too were once teenagers and have gone through something quite similar to you. It might not be easy to open up on your feelings, you might not think anyone will understand, but communication is better than keeping it all bottled up. Speak to your parents, try to connect with them on a more emotional level, they have already gone through this stage and have come out alive on the other side, they might just reveal the key to dealing with it.

Your home should be a sanctuary, a place where the outside world can’t get to you, a place where you can be comfortable in your own skin. Do not isolate yourself from those who love you and care about you, don’t lock yourself away in those dark corners of your mind. Instead try to become more actively involved in family activities, participate in family game night, eat dinner with your family, be in the presence of those who love you, it’s bad enough to feel alone in the world, you don’t need to feel alone at home as well.

Instead of thinking about what others can do for you, think more about what you can do for others. Some of the greatest pleasure you will experience is when you help others, whether it is big or small it doesn’t matter. If you cannot find joy by helping, try finding it by helping those who help you. If you see your mother struggling to make dinner and do washing and clean the house, help her. If your siblings need help with their homework, help them.

If perchance you are feeling down and out, without a hope in the world, do not take your anger out upon your family members; rather focus your energy on something else. If you feel like shouting at your mother, do the opposite, find a quiet place to sit and think, meditation can go a long way on the road to self-discovery. Think about all the things you want in life, all the things that make you happy, focus on them and without even realising, your anger would have dispersed. Once you have settled down, explain your feelings in a calm manner and together find a solution to the problem. Rather than raising your voice, improve your argument.

My final advice would be; to not dwell on things for too long, do not spend hours thinking about the things you can’t change, it will eat at your very soul. Instead practise on working on the things you can change and can fix, like the relationship with your family members, how you treat them and the way you act towards them.

Being a teenager is hard, but having more people that love you unconditionally, like your family, can make it a little bit easier. It will not be easy, but you need to work at it.