How many of you have heard the phrase: “You don’t know anything about the real world?”

I’m sorry, but what is this “real world” you speak of? Are we all put into comas from birth and then woken up when we turn 26 so we can join the denizens of this magical place? No. Believe it or not, being a teenager/young adult is a part of real life as well – an incredibly important part that should not be ignored.

There are few things that annoy me more than when an adult doesn’t take the opinion of a young person seriously, strictly because they are young. Even though a person has been on the earth for longer does not mean that person knows all of the ins and outs of how it works and behaves. I know most adults want us young people to believe that they have life all figured out, but it’s not hard to see that they’re just making it up as they go along, same as we are.

Respect is something that must be earned. It’s not automatically assigned. No one is immediately entitled to my respect, even if they’re 47 and have three kids. If someone treats me like a lesser human being, there’s no reason I should have to hold him in higher esteem than everyone else. And vice versa.

So with that, let me say one thing.

Just because a person is young does not mean they’re stupid. They may be a bit naïve, but naivety and stupidity are not at all the same thing. If a person is stupid, it means they’re likely to have poor critical thinking skills, a very closed-minded attitude and a lack of perspective about life and the world around them. Someone who is naïve lacks experience, but they can still possess all of these qualities.

Don’t tell me – someone who constantly exercises his brain every day – that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not the one who comes home every day and turns on The Voice, Pretty Little Liars or Here Comes Honey-Freaking-Boo Boo.

One might argue that being young already implies that someone lacks perspective, but age is not the only way it can be acquired. Perspective can also be gained through education and study. I’m not denying that experience is a good way to gain a larger outlook – in fact, it is probably the best way – but there are other satisfactory methods as well.

One can learn practically anything from reading books. Seriously, anything: history, psychology, science, art, philosophy, language, etc. You name it, there’s been a book written about it. And there are many books written by many different people on the same subject, so one can always explore a plethora of viewpoints. Want to know what it’s like to live life in someone else’s shoes? Read a book about it.

Adults’ views of the world come from what they already know about it, but teenagers and young people view the world as it could be. We see opportunity and potential. We see possibilities. We believe we have the power to change things for the better, so why should anyone tell us otherwise? Why do I keep hearing, “That’s not how the world works?” Am I expected to just roll over and accept that? Remember what I said earlier about how a closed-minded attitude is a mark of unintelligence? That certainly seems relevant now.