Newsflash, girls: Growing up is tough!

by Marissa Kristal

Because when we’re little, no one warns us about the trials and tribulations we are going to endure for the next 100 years of our lives, I am here to impart some practical wisdom: when the going gets tough, laugh.

Let’s start at the beginning – our prepubescent school years. We hate boys, boys hate us, our best friends eat dried glue off their fingers and our bedtime is before any show worth watching comes on television. Depressing, isn’t it?

Fast forward a few years later to high school. Rather than hating boys, they are the center of our lives, the reason for our very existence. We would do anything to get them to notice us, and when they don’t, it’s tragic. We can imagine nothing worse, and I know we’ve all uttered the words, “This is the worst thing that will ever happen to me!”

If we’re lucky, we have a group of girlfriends. If we’re even luckier, our girlfriends are nice to us.

We learn that the cardinal goal of high school is fitting in. And it’s easy to fit in as long as you follow a few simple steps: lose yourself in heavy makeup, awful hairstyles and unintelligible teenage-language. And the grand rule to abide by: do not stand out!

Enter college. If we’re lucky, we have a group of girlfriends. If we’re even luckier, our girlfriends are nice to us. Sound familiar?

Some of us break from the norm in an attempt to find ourselves and be who we are.

Some of us experience feelings we’ve never had before like love, attraction to boys, attraction to girls, attraction to ourselves, anxiety, depression, confusion and even happiness.

If this is supposed to be the greatest four years of our lives, why do we suddenly feel like Jekyll and Hyde? One moment we laugh hysterically, the next we cry feverishly.

Not to mention the fact that we are trying to get smart, build a future and figure out what it is we want to do for the rest of our lives. No pressure…

So the question remains, when do we get past all this growing up angst? When we’re 30, 40, 75 or 100?

Well my friends, the answer is simple. We don’t. Not now, not ever. Girls will always be catty, lovers will always cause us heartache, the search for the perfect job and life will never be easy, and if you’re anything like me, boys will always be confusing.

So in the meantime, how are we supposed to cope?

We must laugh. We must laugh at the troubles, we must laugh at the trauma and we must laugh at the disorder.

We must laugh in the face of all the awkwardness and discomfort that is puberty and beyond.

Life is something none of us get out of alive, so while we’re here we might as well make the most of it and realize that if we learn to react to life’s perils with just a touch of humor, maybe things wouldn’t seem so bad.

And in doing this, something amazing will happen. You will get the last laugh! And you know what? Enjoy that laugh, you deserve it.

The process of growing up never ends. And we will continue to face hardships and difficulties for all our days. But right here, right now I double-dog-dare you to look adversity in the face, and laugh.

After all, it’s only life.

Marissa Kristal is a 24-year-old Minnesota native, now residing in New York City.