Unique, to a Point

As a child growing up, I remember many instances when I disagreed with my parents. My over-riding belief, at least then, was that adults cannot understand what teenagers are going through. My feelings were that, because I am unique, it was impossible for anyone to properly advise me as to what the best way to think or act in a given situation was. For example, my mother, and older siblings, frequently reminded me of the importance of getting good grades and staying in school, which, before the age of 15, I gladly accepted as good advice.
Once I reached the age of 15, however, something happened to me that is still confusing. Suddenly, I began to feel woefully abnormal, especially when I compared myself to anyone else. I found myself consumed with worry about what my friends thought of me. Yet, with typical teenage coolness, I managed to keep up the charade of coolness to my friends so that they would accept me. Unfortunately, this meant that, when asked by one of them, for example, to ditch school so that we could party or commit some other socially frowned upon act, my need to be accepted compelled me to go along with the "cool" kids. This need to be accepted by my peers became a priority that I held above all others in my youth.
No longer did I listen to the advice of my family. To do so would mean that they were right, which, was impossible. How could they be correct in telling me to go to college, when all that I wanted to do is hang out with my friends? How can they decide that going to college is the best thing for me? With these questions in my mind, and a bellyfull of, what I considered, their hypocrisy, I decided to drop out of high school at seventeen to find work.
And, I did exactly that. After a few years, though, of working in the feast or famine environment of construction, as well as many other lower wage jobs with no opportunity for advancement, I began to experience the results of not following my family's advice. Whereas, I once thought of myself as unique and capable of choosing the best path for myself, I came to view the life that I had created as dismal and disappointing. The friends that I worked so hard to fit in with rarely ever contacted me. Gone were the days when socializing with my friends was my life's priority, replaced by the consuming urgency of how to pay for my rent, food, utilities, and everything else that I needed to survive. Reality bites hard, and harder still for the person in extreme denial.
Remembering this stage in my life was spurred on by my overhearing a teenager angrily tell their parent that they did not understand what the teen was going through. I felt, both, amused and pained by the similarities between the angry teenager and myself of twenty-plus years ago. Amused, partially because the feeling that teens have, of being so unique that the normal rules do not apply to them, are unoriginal, with almost every adult having experienced the same feeling during adolescence. It pained me, though, to remember my own stupidity and arrogance. Yet, maybe it is useful to look back at one's teenage years, so that one is more compassionate towards the feelings of today's teenagers. In their freshly forming world, they are unable, for the most part, to understand that they are special and unique, to a point.