Teen

The age of freedom: Teens define America's greatest asset

By ANNA SCALAMOGNA, JAMIE SHEIRER, and LINDSAY HOLMES
Published July 2, 2007

Editor's note: The following essays were written by participants in a summer workshop for high school students at the Poynter Institute, the school for journalists that owns the St. Petersburg Times.

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At 16, I hear the word freedom and think of four wheels and a set of keys.

It's summer. What could be better than rolling down the windows, letting the sun hit my face and blasting country music as I meet my friends at the beach?

My dad says it's too expensive for us to have four drivers and four cars in the family. But my older brother just left for college, so I am at last inheriting his beat-up white Saturn. Finally, I can get my license.

For a long time, I couldn't wait for my brother to leave so I could gain what I've been waiting for since I turned 16 in March: independence and freedom.

At 18, my brother hears the word freedom and thinks of something completely different.

Tony has just left for the U.S. Naval Academy, embarking on an adventure that is incredibly exciting, nerve-racking and ultimately risky.

In March, I couldn't wait for my brother to leave. I wanted my license, my car, my freedom.

But as the magical date approached, I felt my stomach knot up and a lump form in my throat. The irony runs thick. Just as I acquire my own idea of freedom, my brother is giving up his to ensure freedom for everybody else.

For me, freedom has a face. It is the men and women that give their lives for us. It is my brother.

Anna Scalamogna, 16, will be a junior at Clearwater Central Catholic High School this fall.

We convene at my kitchen round table, my best friend and I. Our conversation is consistent - day-to-day happenings sprinkled with gossip and the occasional intellectual spin-off. We laugh, we cry, we agree and experience every emotion in between. We banter for what seems like hours, until we reach a certain topic. Conversation comes to a screeching halt, as we disagree on every aspect of the issue . . . politics.

My best friend, like a good number of people my age, doesn't care about politics. As teenagers, where pressure comes from almost every angle of our world and mental health is only a summer freedom, it's difficult to even think of politics, whether it's learning about it, conversing about it or acting upon it. What my peers of Generation Y don't understand is that their lack of interest will affect them as a massive political movement unfolds before us, the presidential election of 2008.

Our country offers us tremendous freedoms that we often take for granted. But without them, our lives would be turned upside down. We have the freedom of the press, speech, thought, religion, education. We have the opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness, and yet there are certain ways that we don't completely extend that pursuit.

Voting is one of the greatest ways to exercise our freedom, because it allows us to choose who will advocate for our continued freedom. It's a way to support those who make enormous decisions that affect us in ways that we almost never fully understand.

Although it may not seem now that our place in society is that large, we are the future of our country. Our place is vast. It is vitally important that teenagers realize the impact we possess if we extend ourselves to the world of politics and cast our ballots.

My friend and I resume our conversation after heated discussion and a short break to breathe. Topics fly from every corner: pursuing dreams, the latest sale at Nordstrom, defying stereotypes. Politics returns to its spot on the back burner.

Jamie Sheirer, 17, will be in 12th grade at Clearwater Central Catholic High in the fall.

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Today's teenagers grew up in the age of cartoons about crime-solving dogs and babies that talk. We were fascinated with pretend games of tiny G.I. Joe figures taking on the monstrous plastic dinosaur destroying the Lego town. We spent hours dressing up our Barbies and combing their hair. The afternoons at the playground or evenings running around in the sticky night, mosquitoes nipping our legs, were some of the best of our lives. It was the only time most of us can say we were truly content.

These experiences, where innocence was at its peak, were the epitome of freedom. Now, as young adults, we get wrapped up in the hectic milieu of our academic and social lives; we lose the sight and feeling of the freedom of being carefree.

We complain about tasks we have to accomplish in a certain amount of time, but we couldn't wait to be this age. Now, we find ourselves wishing back to the days where we had 10-question worksheets for homework and watched Rugrats after dinner.

We didn't worry about the world or the country's state of affairs; our biggest issues were the scrapes on our knees from an intense game of capture the flag or that the cafeteria was out of Drumstick ice cream cones.

Back then we had never heard of Iraq. Our only knowledge of war was what we learned in social studies. Our parents were quick to flip the channel when a song with a bad word came on the radio. We didn't realize it then, but there was nothing greater than the liberty of not constantly worrying about issues bigger than ourselves.

It is often said that things in the world were a lot simpler then, but it was our innocence that made it so. There were economic problems in the country and conflict among nations in previous decades - we are just more aware of it now. But it was those days of Saturday morning soccer games, sidewalk chalk and Ring Pops that brought us true fulfillment. We considered those successful days, and they are much different than what we consider a successful day now.

When we were younger we weren't afraid to ask questions. We ran around bright-eyed and curious. Our idea of a threat to our safety was the monster hiding in our closet. That naivete, the innocence we will never get back, was the true taste of freedom.

Lindsay Holmes, 17, will be in 12th grade at East Lake High in the fall.

[Last modified July 16, 2007, 12:03:06]