Teenage Dreams Slipping Away? Don’t Worry, You Haven’t Reached Your ‘Sitcom Age’ Yet

The countdown begins, ‘3, 2, 1… Happy Birthday!!’ The candles are blown out, and a wish is thrown out into the universe. One more year around the sun, and yet another aunty asking how it feels to turn 19? “Oh, it feels the same!” I reply, but does it truly feel the same? 

It is interesting how the closer you become to nineteen, the more you start seeing red. There’s that constant fear of having missed out on teenage love, teenage mischief, the impulsion, the defiance. It’s almost as if there’s an intense urge to relive those years. This ideology has, in fact, encapsulated our lives for most of our teenage years. The thought of jumping from the great first-time ‘double digits’ to the big 20 is incredibly daunting. I have contemplated several metaphors that help describe this feeling; ‘staring at the train as it pulls out of the platform’ to ‘the ship has sailed’. But, ultimately, I landed on one of my own. There you are on your surfboard, each wave rolls up to you with promise, but you never paddle. You’re waiting for the perfect wave, the one that’ll make it all worth it. They keep coming, but you’re too busy looking for the right one. In doing so, you miss every opportunity that could make you live life to the fullest; you’re missing out on the now. That’s what it feels like standing on the edge of nineteen.

I would be lying if I said that I don’t get hit with a wave of fear lined with nostalgia. It’s the thought of missing out on the ‘teenage dream’. No thank you to the countless songs that only seem to emphasise the incompleteness of those years. The concept of achieving your ‘ideal’ teenage years has been romanticized to the point of becoming a Pinterest aesthetic. Scrolling through my reels, I now pause on the “life of a teenager” collages. They’re so tempting, but I can’t picture myself living that life. Those pinboard-worthy pictures that I save on my Pinterest page have now become a form of escapism, rendering me delusional.

While I just so happened to be creating the same fake ‘teenage dream’ sequences in my head, my friend said something that stuck with me. “You know, it feels like we’re missing out on the teenage ‘experience’, but if you truly think about it, we haven’t even reached our ‘Sitcom Age’ yet.” If you look at it that way, then well…

Take, for example, shows like FRIENDS, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, and Big Bang Theory. Are any of the characters 19 years old? Or, for that matter, even 20 or 21? No, because they’re all 25 or older. Now, that’s your sitcom age. 

Here’s my proposition. You see, all the characters in some of the greatest sitcoms of our time lived out their moments not when they were teenagers, but when they hit their sitcom age. The friendship bonds they formed, the adventures they had, were not linked to their not ‘living out their teenage years’. They found themselves at that pinnacle moment, still building their dreams. It’s sometimes as simple as the daily brunch spot, the familiar sofa, or walking through the same doorway. Finding your sitcom age is a whirlwind of flaws, comedy, uncertainty, and balance, which is not something that can be seen when you’re on the cusp of 20. It’s that age when you’re connecting ends to pay rent or waiting for that one text in the group chat. Reaching your sitcom age is not about perfection; it’s about reality and the everyday moments. It’s about filming one episode at a time. 

The conception that all your biggest and important moments unfold when you’re young is extremely flawed. Or, that you can only catch the ‘main character syndrome’ (in a good way) in your teenage years. Your main character arc doesn’t end when you introduce yourself as ‘20’ to your long-unacquainted family members, who look at each other in shock. Find excitement in knowing that your sitcom age is just approaching. You haven’t even scratched the surface of having cameras stuck into your face as your own show becomes live. 

Being a teenager is, of course, fun and games, but it’s a work in progress. You’re still figuring out who you are, your interests, your dislikes, and your passions. If you start refining that process into small brackets of aesthetics, reels, and Pinterest boards – that’s not real life. Your life doesn’t have to match an internet aesthetic; you get to create your own. No amount of pinned or saved images can hold you to what society views as ideal.

So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. You may have blown out those candles for the last time when your age started with a ‘one,’ but the first episode of your sitcom is just about to air, and that’s how you know you’ve hit your sitcom age.

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• college
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• Sitcoms
• Teenage