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Comment by esotericn | Hacker News Reader

I vividly remember being frustrated as a teenager that I essentially lived my life as a vassal until age 18 or so.

The school system felt utterly farcical. Like being trapped in a cage with a bunch of idiots.

In adult life you can quit a job, leave a town, change yourself. As a teenager your most expressive period is robbed from you.

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I also agree that people running their mouths of on how bad teens are without considering that they are essentially chattel and being told every day of their life they are not to make any decision that matters to their physical and mental well-being -- straight up until they're 18 and then they better get every decision right -- is insane. Judgment is not something you can learn in school.

Yet, many people want to paint the time before 18 as filled with unicorns and rainbows. Most of the time, it sucked for me. For the longest time, I didn't have a way to get money (a job), no way to get around without someone else, and what little money I had, I couldn't spend it the way I wanted.

> In adult life you can quit a job, leave a town, change yourself.

Only if you've got the wealth. Most adults are wage slaves chained to grinding, unfulfilling jobs just to pay the bills and feed their families. Childhood might not seem so bad to them.

A 14 year old would have a hell of a time trying to 'set up' in a different town at all.

That an adult might find it difficult, or potentially end up in a worse situation, is besides the point.

And obviously I'm not talking about running away from a family.

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