I remember when I was 12/13 and I couldn't wait until I was 18 when I could legally drink, I thought my teen years would be filled with crazy parties and cute boys and tons of fun. I then joined the church so I feel like I've missed out on that, and have been left with no friends, and no fun memories. I'm a week off being 19 and I feel like I have no friends, and what are supposed to be my best years are turning out to be pretty disappointing.

Where is the legal drinking age 18?

A lot of countries have the legal drinking age at 18- Mexico and most European countries to start with. I think parts of Canada as well?

And USA until 1984. Nancy Reagan's just say no brainchild.

England

Have you missed out because of mormonism? Yeah, probably.

But for the vast majority of us, our teen years also sucked. It ain't like John Hughes movies. Can't be.

The worst destroyer of hope is taking other people's visions of how things should be as gospel. How do YOU think things should be?

I think all of look back and think those years were bad. As young people we want to grow up faster. I did. However at 19 you are just starting to be an adult. The past is gone and you have a new start ahead of you. Figure out where you want to be and do in the future. Go to school and plan ahead. Two things you can do nothing about,,yesterday and tomorrow.

Teenage years suck for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Keep your chin up. Get to know yourself and what you really love - it may not be just parties and drinking and a ton of friends (Although there's still plenty of time for drinking later in life when it won't mess up your still developing brain. Find somewhere to volunteer. Take a class in something you enjoy. I would be hard pressed to find a person that believed their teenage years were the best (perhaps with the exeption of the lack of bills to pay and house payments to make at that age).

My teen years sucked, but they were made worse by the church in a plethora of tiny ways.

First, not growing up in Utah, I had to go to Early Morning Seminary, which was at 6:30 in the morning. Not only did this suck, but seminary didn't get out until 7:30 and high school was fifteen minutes away. My school had the option of taking 7:30 am classes, which either allowed you to skip the last class of the day and go home early at 2:30, or you could use it to make up for a failed class, or study straight through until 3:30 and have enough credits to graduate a semester early. Not having any of these options sucked.

Then there was the Wednesday night activities, which sucked, by my Baptist friends all had the same problem. If you were a Mormon and involved in extracurricular activities, like sports or band, you could give up on keeping your part time job, since you had so little time available to work it. You had to have a job though, to help raise money for the mission everyone was pushing you to serve, so you dropped all those other activities so you could work, to get money for your Mission.

Fact is, the Morg simply crowds out all your free time, that you need to better yourself, rather you are a teenager or an adult. It's not fun for anyone.

Just wait for your first school reunion. ;)

Those people who were at their peak, having a blast, best time of their life in high school... often head right downhill from there.

Those for whom high school years suck, they are the people who gained the drive to improve, to advance, and will go far. These will be the interesting people at the reunion.

Hope springs eternal...

you're friggin' 19. Go party NOW. You haven't missed anything.

Many floated through their teens as kingpins and never gained the inner resolve and character to accomplish what the rest of us have done.