What Can One Teen Do?
Ages 13 - 18
BE YOURSELF
BE YOURSELF
If You’re a Teenager
What is your natural direction, you may want to take career-matching inventories or read blogs that are related to your interests. You can join forums, join social media groups with your interest or skill.
Is someone sitting alone at lunch? Go eat with them!
Ask them what they like to do for fun. Try and find out what makes them authentic! Share what makes YOU authentic! Maybe you’ll make a new friend.
Sign-up to become a focus group member for future episodes of Back to Our Nature. Tell your friends about this Series.
Join a Club at school or outside of school that are about your interests. Your friends may like these things too, but that’s not always the case. It’s fun to do things with friends, but it’s also fun (sometimes even more fun) to join a group that is about things that are especially interesting to you. The things that make You are sometimes a little different from things that EVERYONE likes.
Job shadow
which means to watch someone do a job that you are interested in and you can learn from them. You can ask questions of that person (they will probably want to share what they know), and you’ll find out more about whether or not you like that kind of job.
Informational Interview
If you’re a teenager, you can ask your teacher or a guidance counselor (is that what they are called today) to help set it up. You can ask questions, like if you were doing a newspaper interview, and you can find out about their career. You may be able to record it, if the person is okay with that.
Travel to cool places
See what’s true in the past, and present & envision the future that you want to be part of! Do some research and share this information with your parents or another safe adult.
Emotions
Get in touch with your emotions about things that you do or think about
which can help you connect with what’s really important to you.
For example, do you LOVE listening to music? If so, you could explore different types of music and find the kinds that you really like. There are a lot of types of music! Not only different styles, but different parts of the country, and from different countries! And that may lead to something else, like maybe you would like to try writing a song in that type of music. Or go to hear a local
band play that type of music. Another idea is that you could write a story about this type of music and what it’s like hear it. These are just a few examples of what you may want to explore with your emotions.
A Strong Resume
If you’re a teenager, it may be helpful to find experiences that will help you to build a stronger resume. Such as volunteering at an animal rescue center or asking your parents to join you to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. There are many opportunities for volunteering either in person or online. Be sure to ask your parents or another safe adult to make sure the location is a safe place to volunteer.
Enroll in a school-to-work program.
Try something really different – just to say you did!
Challenge yourself to think about who you’ll be 10 years from now, and explore an idea related to that!
Start a group at your school or with friends who share your interest OR whose interests compliment yours.
Accept that you don’t always know your true self, your true abilities, or your true purpose in life, but by exploring you will often get closer to getting to know YOU
Summer Intern
Be a Summer Intern at a cool place that you would LOVE to work at. It may seem out of reach, but it may be worth a try!
Some examples of interests could be:
Taking Photographs, Reading about a certain time in history, or in the future!
Gardening, Drawing, Hiking, playing Soccer, Puzzles
Cooking or maybe creating a cooking show for kids on YouTube
Dance, Astronomy, Learning about Plants and Trees, Playing with Animals, Speaking in front of a group, trying out for Track
Writing stories or poems, Knitting, Cartooning, Creating beaded jewelry, Reading Comic Books or Graphic Novels
Join the Climate Change Adventure Club!
Show someone kindness. Perhaps there is someone at school that is labeled “weird” because they’re being themselves… Smile at them! Compliment them! Support your friends in their authentic journey.
Do they love to act? Go see their play! Clap for them!
If you are a teen, find a coach or mentor.
Has a teacher ever told you that they would like to help you be better at something because they see promise in you? You may want to tell the teacher you’d like to learn more about what they would recommend.
Pick up trash at your local beach or park! Take a group with you and remember to bring and wear gloves!
Try out for your school play or musical!
Volunteer to be a mentor to younger kids in your school.
Take a workshop or a class that is kind of a challenge.
As you do things that are kind of uncomfortable, you will have a chance to grow and be all you can be!
Start saving money so that you can get more involved in your interest.
If you are a teenager, get a job that is related to something you really like.
If you are a teenager and you are having problems finding a job that you really like, there may be something about a job that IS available, that is something that will help you in ways you may not expect. Such as learning how to work on a team or learning how to work at a cash register, or a chance to become a better communicator! All of those things can be very valuable to you in your chosen interest. It’s like going in the back door instead of the front door to get something that you want.