Tuesday, April 23, 2013

It's Your Life

Author's Note: This is my point of view piece on the song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi, along with the view point of our parents and the truth, in my opinion, of the situations.


Remember when you were a kid and your parents would always tell you what to do? They’d tell you what you had to do, when you had to and how? In “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi, it portrays a man who is standing his ground in saying “It’s my life. I’m in control. I’ll do what I want to do.”  There are very different points of view that live within the song and could likewise rise from it.

Jon starts the song off in saying “This aint a song for the broken-hearted. No silent prayer for the faith-departed. I ain’t gonna be just a face in the crowd. You’re gonna hear me when I shout it out loud.” These few lines basically open the song saying he doesn’t want sympathy or anything like that, but  wants people to hear him out. He wants them to hear his side. He’s going to make them listen. He then continues onto the chorus: “It’s my life, it’s now or never. I’m not gonna live forever. I just wanna while I’m alive. My heart is like an open highway. Like Frankie said, ‘I did it my way.’ I just wanna live while I’m alive. It’s my life.” He’s explaining that he needs to live his life, and that he doesn’t need to live for or by anyone else; he needs to start now. Putting emphasis on It’s my life by repeating it three times throughout the chorus, and the saying “Like Frankie said, ‘I did it my way.’” he definitely puts a pressure on the fact he wants to be more independent. But, how do his and our parents feel?

We as teenagers long for the independence we’ve been searching and craving, but I don’t think we always stop to look at our parent’s point of view. They are the only true people who have known us from birth. They went through the good and bad times , struggling through hardships. They protected us from our fears and the outside world.

Now, you and I both know how teenagers are. Let’s face it: we think we know everything and can handle ourselves. Just imagine being a parent, or if you already are a parent then  think about it. You would want the best for your children or you currently do and you know that. All of this “YOLO” currently and things like that are just the stupid excuses people use to get drunk and be stupid. Just really think about it, our parents have lived through the same kind of years that we do now. However, everything around us has evolved and changed. Teenagers have access to a lot more using the internet, our cell phones, advanced transportations, etc. You and I both know the things that teenagers get offered, the effects their decisions have on them, and the things that can happen in their lives. Things like drugs they may do, death you may see or hear about in teen years. Parents just want to prevent us from falling into any of those traps. I could almost guarantee that if you were to ask a parent if they could think back to a time they wish they would’ve listened to their mom, their dad, their aunt, their uncle, their grandparents… anyone who knew more than they  knew, they could.  

Asking a few parents on their point of views, and reading different forums, I found a lot of the same responses falling into categories of wanting the best for their kids, wanting their kids to succeed, and wanting to prevent their own kids of making the same mistakes they had. “Well, I see myself in [my child]. I made a lot of the same stupid mistakes and those decisions still affect me today.” Stated an anonymous source. Another stated that their teenage kids tend to be more “reckless” than the people of her generation due changes in society and what is made available to them. It seems that what parents say reins true. They really do want the best for their children.

We as teenagers often take what our parents are trying to do for granted, and also often take it in the wrong way. Yes, it’s our life but we can always use some guidance throughout.  We don’t truly know as much as we think we do. The more we know, the more there is to learn. Parents will be parents and try to help us, but it’s up to us to learn and progress from ourselves and our parents. 

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