Is this common?

Question

If you read an autobiography, you discover all sorts of fascinating and almost incredible stories that affected someone's life, even at an early age. Of the flashbacks that I recall from an early age, none of them are interesting. Even now, I can't think of stories that would interest people. Do a lot of other teenagers feel this way?

Answer 1

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In this technology enriched society we find ourselves in, there will always be perplexities. Therefore, any answer may or may not meet your expectations. Teens of today live in a computer game world. Why would learning about the American Revolution even interest them?

Answer 2

I think you should consider that autobiographies are usually well thought-out written accounts, and that they are usually about events that occurred long before the accounts were written down (thus older people). And published autobiographies open to reading by the public are usually about famous people.

Given these assumptions:
1) A person would have much time to reflect on his/her experiences, and thus be able to think and write about them in such a way that MAKES them seem eventful, important and/or interesting. Even the most mundane experience can be interesting with enough intellectual curiousity, and can seem interesting on paper with enough writing talent.

2) Exaggerations, selective memory, and personal bias can also be a factor that makes the accounts "incredible," as you say. If a person wants to write about himself, he would want to BE and SEEM interesting, both to himself and to others who would read his story.

3) by simple virtue of youth, a teenager may just have too few experiences for comparison.

4) Famous people or infamous people, people considered special, I imagine, really do have a plethora of incredible experiences that shaped them to have the things that make them "special".

Answer 3

It's quite common indeed. To be a teenager is almost by definition to be restless and to feel that life is passing one by.

Please don't be put off by the seemingly fascinating things that happen to some famous people. There are far more people who've gone on to achieve great things for whom absolutely nothing miraculous happened in their early years. Indeed, many have achieved great things precisely because they wanted to get away from the bland predictability of thier lives and stretch out to accomplish something different and new.

Use this precious time you've been given, not to compare yourself with others, but to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses, to get an understanding of the contributions you might like to make, and then to take the necessary steps to prepare yourself for a bright future.

Answer 4

Yes, even now I don't find your musings interesting at all. Quite a fascinating phenomenon, that.

Perhaps you should go out and do something interesting - like go to a museum or see a play - instead of just watching the telly all the time. Then you might have something interesting to talk about.

Answer 5

hahaha, well that's why they have biographies written about them and you don't. I used to read Tucker Max and **** and was bummed that I had no good stories. But then my friend from Toronto came into town and I told her so many stories. I didn't even realize I had so much to say, it was weird because I'm not exactly a huge party animal or anything.

Answer 6

the funny thing is I think my life is increadibly boring, because well, its my life, all the things ive done are just that, nothing really fun or interesting, yet when i tell other people things, or other people tell stories about me other people get interested, so i guess its all just finding the right audience.

Answer 7

Just lie when you write your autobiography. Lots of people do it.
Better yet don't write one at all. Live for yourself and screw what people will think of you after you're gone.

Answer 8

if you're a teenage, you ain't been around long enough. sooner or later interesting things will happen. maybe some boring things that have already happened will be interesting when you get older.

Answer 9

i felt the same but now im interested to find some one in history whose childhood was boring and still became a success

Answer 10

well of course you won't find it interesting - you've done it all before. the reason you find other peoples' childhoods interesting is because they're *different* from your own