Change is a defining moment that brings both positive and negative impacts. What is it about change that makes most teenagers shiver? Is the fear of adjustment or even the fear of stress? Change is an ongoing process that keeps upsetting and resetting the real meaning of a person's very existence. Change could also mean moving from old to new, same to different, familiar to unfamiliar, know to unknown state or circumstance and usually affects a teen positively or negatively. A teenager's life is full of changes, such as the emotional and physical change into adulthood. A change could be immediate, such as relocating to a new environment, or it could even be a slow paced change such as; building a new relationship, no matter the pace of the change. Difficult life changes for teenagers to cope with in life is the change in friends, change to a new living environment and even a change of a whole new perspective.
A great example of how it isn't easy for teenagers to adapt to a new environment is shown in the book "Skin". Tuan, a refugee from Vietnam finds himself struggling to adapt to his new environment. He is faced with bullying from his new peers which more difficult to adjust and settle. His poor English skills makes it hard for him to communicate and report to an older adult of his case of being bullied. One day, Tuan meets a fellow refugee named Lo. By meeting Lo, Tuan's struggle of adapting to his new environment is eased because Lo understands what Tuan is going through, so Tuan is not alone in his situation. Change can cause a negative impact on the teenager and their life. It could affect a teens decision and their ability to understand the consequences of their decisions. On the other hand, the positive side from changing to a new living environment means being exposed to other cultures in his school or even making new friends.
Another dramatic change that could affect a teenager's life is a change in friends. It would seem silly to get dramatic of just losing a friend, but this change goes against what teenagers aren't hoping for and usually happens at least once in their life. It's difficult to change your friends. This is shown in the book "Chanda's Secrets" written by Allan Stratton. It narrates the story involving Chanda the main character and her best friend Esther experiencing unwanted changes. The changes Chanda notice about Esther is that Esther keeps lying to Chanda, Esther keeps secrets from Chanda, and nowadays Esther is always unnecessarily rude to Chanda and her family. These changes negatively affects Chanda, as she also battle with restoring her family to the way it was; these impacts include Chanda with sleepless nights. Losing a friend is more than it seems, it affects young people in ways parents and other adults can't comprehend; such as understanding that losing a friend means losing those fun memories shared. It also means slowly losing the love for the once best friend. This is one of the many reasons why a change of friend is a significant change that tenagers find it difficult to understand.
Change is inevitable and is constant. Theres no stopping change and will eventually happen no matter what. The problem is that teenagers don't have the ability to deal with change effectively, and don't know how to cope with the after effects the change brings with. The most common after effect is usually stress. Take for example; when multiple changes collide such as Moving to a new environment and dealing with making new friends, teengers usually fear of dealing with the stress and don't usually have a solution. Although change makes everything else change, the end result is that one will stay true and remain the same.
