Some people say that teenage years are the golden years in a human's life, while others say that that it belongs to older ages. Fourteen is one of the earlier years of teenage life, while fifty can be considered old. For my side, I believe that being fourteen years old is much better than being fifty years old.

People's physical abilities are usually at their peak during teenage years. Thus, being fourteen allows a person to do strenuous activities like rock climbing, weight lifting, et cetera. However, when a person is fifty, their physical abilities will be much lower than the earlier years of life. Doing strenuous activities might take too much out of him, and thus, he might not be able to enjoy doing it, which defeats the purpose of doing such activities.

Moreover, many people still have to work at the age of fifty (in Singapore). Working is definitely not easy compared to studying. Fourteen-year-olds do not have to worry about the family's livelihood; their parents take care of that. Sometimes, when working under big companies, the bosses might find that their older workers have lower work efficiency and thus "fire" them. Naturally, when one is fifty, one have such things to worry about, because they might not be able to catch up with the technology, and might not be able to do as much work as university graduates do.

Furthermore, when one is fourteen, one has the power to control one's future. How is it so? Well, people who are fourteen are usually in secondary schools. They are able to study well while they still have the chance, and thus might get good qualifications, leading to a future with a good job. However, when one is fifty, all one can do is try to do one's job well. One will not be able to get a good qualification any longer, because he is already out of school. Even if he is able to, he will not very much be employed, as there are so many university graduates who are much younger than he is, on the streets looking for jobs.

Finally, when one is fifty, one might even be afraid of the technology that us developing in this fast-paced society, because one might not be able to catch up. They have been used to the much simpler ways (like my mom, she cannot even use the microwave oven!). However, if it is fourteen-year-old, he will be able to learn it easily rather than recoil from it. Being only fourteen, he will be able to get used to the ever-changing technology in the society.

Thus, I will like to state that being fourteen is much better than being fifty, because when one is fourteen, one can do so much more than fifty-year-olds can. For example, fourteen year olds have the ability to do physical activities that fifty year olds cannot, they have the chance to study well while they could, also, they had a greater adaptability to the ever-revolving technology. Besides, all one has to do is study, which is so much easier than working nine-to-five a day.

~Hidoko Matsumoto, Midyear exams 1999, Sec two special stream, where all the topics are so mundane (at least this is okay).

Notes: For fun, peace, joy et laughter I'm putting dis up. Please don’t sue me, I don’t want to write this anyway, but this is the only one write-able from the choices… And you wont be surprised to know I got only 24 upon 40… Hahahaha!! One of my best grades for essay writing if you ask me!

http://xz0ne.cjb.net
voidmatsumoto@yahoo.co.uk