Teen Times: You're too young to go pubbing and clubbing but too old for summer camps, playgrounds and games that used to occupy you and your friends for hours when you were younger. Three months is a long time, especially when there's nothing to do, writes Chloe Coogan
The media has a habit of generalising teenagers. If you see an article in magazines or newspapers on teenagers you're bound to come across the words drink, drugs, sex, and violence. These are some of words that spring to mind when adults think of people my age.
The reality for most teenagers during the summer months is quite different. For most of us it's not full of drunken, drug-filled parties. It's actually full of sitting around with your friends day after day asking the same depressing question that no one ever has a decent answer to: "What shall we do today?".
Here's the problem. There's nothing to do and nowhere to go. As we all know (and hear ad nauseam from our parents every time we ask for a bit of cash) "money doesn't grow on trees". Getting a job is a priority for teenagers during the summer, but it's never as easy as that. Unless you've got connections, friends or relatives who can put in a good word for you somewhere, it's hard to get a job. It's really all down to luck. From my experience, you could hand out a hundred perfect CVs and not even get an interview. Meanwhile, your friend hands out just one and nabs the job on the spot.
So for teenagers who are too young or too unlucky to get a job, what are they to do? No parent wants their house taken over by their teenage son or daughter and all their friends. The Garda certainly doesn't like us hanging around our local area. Sitting in your local green with a group of friends, none of whom are doing anything they shouldn't be doing, when gardaí pull up we are still asked to "move along there now".
It's a joke! Are we expected to sit at home looking out the window all day? That's what it seems like because we have nowhere else to go. There's only so many times you can go to the cinema and bowling, and what fun is shopping when you only get a few euro off your parents a week to spend? This is where some teenagers turn to shoplifting. Boredom is definitely a major factor in teenage juvenile behaviour.
They start to experiment with drugs and alcohol out of boredom too. When this experimentation turns to addiction and with no income, the easiest way to get money is by stealing it or by selling drugs to other people to feed the habit. It's a vicious circle.
If teenagers had the right amenities, something fun and productive for them to do, this mightn't be happening as much. The Government seems to think it can give us an education and wash their hands of us. They think school is all we need.
Every teenager's favourite part of school is the summer holidays. When you start to think that school would be more interesting than these boring summer days, then something is definitely not right.
Chloe Coogan (16) is from Dublin
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