As teenagers, when someone tells us, “NO”, we want to do it even more, even if we hear a lot of people saying that is not a good thing. Once we make up our minds, we will do it no matter what. Why is that?

Many students at Miami High don’t like listening to authority figures. Sophomore Emma Alonso said, “If an authority asks me to do something I don’t want to do, I wouldn’t do it, because even though they have some kind of control over me, I can do whatever I want to do if I know it is giving me something good.”

Lazaro Diaz, a junior, said that he wouldn’t do it either because he doesn’t like adults to tell him what to do.

But why are teens so anti-authority? P.E. teacher, Mr. Marcus Carreño said, “Teenagers think they know everything, so they need to learn things by experience. Most of the time they don’t listen to advice. They just do whatever they want.”

Mr. Miranda, our CSI Director, thinks that freedom is good for teenagers, as long as it is not in excess.

On the other hand, there are students who say that they obey authority figures as a demonstration of respect, Leila Aristizabal, a junior, said that we must respect the authority no matter what. Senior Vicente Raimondi said, “Since we are kids, adults taught us that our way to respect them is doing what they want us to do.”

Nobody thinks we would be better without adults though. Senior Tommy Collins thinks that it’s beneficial to listen to adults because they have more experience than us and they can teach us a lot. Another senior Justin Flores said, “Adults sometimes are wrong, but they have been where we are and they give good advice.”

Even the authority figures at our school admit that they were a bit rebellious as teens. Ms. Dayma Echeverria, our 11th Grade counselor, said that being reckless taught her important lessons. Breaking boundaries is part of being an adolescent because it’s part of growing up.

So, maybe being reckless is not that bad. Maybe we teens really do know how to use our heads despite what adults say. Making mistakes is a part of us learning how to make our own better decisions for the future, and adults should start trusting us a little more, because if they give us the opportunity, we can surprise them.