Good evening and welcome to my blog about life as a young person. I'll be talking about the generic life of a young person in England, including the problems we face in future and present times. I will be speaking out about the corruption that we currently face.
But today let's have a positive post about what makes young people happy;
One of the most important things to me is a good social life with good positive influencing friends who build you up. We don't need or want negativity! We don't want judgemental people around us! We just want good honest people who help us to be the best person we can be! And that's just what my friends do and I'm so lucky and grateful to have each and every one of them around both physically and by phone. We do want banter though! Lots and lots of pure quality banter! What often gets me through a tough day on the job is having a sense of humour with colleagues and customers, though of course it's important to be professional at work too.
An important thing to young people's mental health is brain stimulation, but sadly some places lack stimulation for teenagers and that's not good. Where I grew up, once you became a teenager there really wasn't much stimulating activity until I turned 18 and could legally go for an evening in the pub. And that was the problem, I was too old for child's activities but too young for grown up stuff, so I had to make do with playing on my Xbox most of the time (or going out with friends to do what little activities there were). I had to be home by 10:30pm too so no late night gaming sessions with friends at their house either. I could go out on my bike but in England you can't take your driving lessons and test until you turn 17, so I had to stay local on my bike unless my parents were available to take me, my friends and our bikes somewhere. When I turned 18 things got a bit better as the world of nightlife was finally open to me, and the only rule was make sure you get home safely by whatever means you choose which was usually the bus. Unusually, considering the area had lots of small towns separated by countryside, buses ran all through the night to almost everywhere on Friday and Saturday nights.
Having the nightlife was great, however you need lots of money for a night out. But we were planning to move to a completely different area before I turned 18 but this got set back a few times, and as a result getting permanent employment after finishing college was pretty much impossible. We eventually uprooted and moved to the new area just under 2 months after my 18th birthday. There's more to do that provides mental stimulation in the new area, but again immediately after relocating there was the issue of I had no money coming in as I was unemployed. So, onto benefits it was. Though only as a temporary measure, as I didn't like getting paid to do nothing. This money wasn't a lot anyway, probably about half of what one is paid as an average for a part time job. But it was enough to enjoy the occasional night out and to treat myself to a few luxuries occasionally.
Fast forward 9 months and I was nicely settled and starting my first full time job. It didn't pay a massive amount per month but compared to benefits I felt like a millionaire (even though I obviously wasn't). I felt like I had purpose and meaning in the world again and that really gave me a mental boost after a relocation that went, well let's just say not as good as my high expectations made me think it would be.
When people say money can't buy you happiness, they are sort of correct. However, money makes it possible to afford the things that give you mental stimulation, which in turn does give you happiness and satisfaction. And working a good enjoyable job to earn that money is of ever-underestimated value. You need to be doing a job which you enjoy, even if you have to find ways to make it enjoyable, because being in a job which makes you happy will give you a sense of confidence, meaning, happiness and of course that all important mental stimulation.
