Okuma – Too much pressure on a teenager

Mükemmeliyetçi bir ailenin evladı Cemil’in bağımsızlık mücadelesi / The story of a teenager pressurized by his family

• Hikaye ⇓
• Test

Cemil had problems with his family when he was a teenager. Here, he is talking about them:

“When I started high school, I also started to have problems with my family. They thought that I had to study all the time because four years later there was the university entrance exam. When I came from school, dinner would be ready. My father would say, ‘Have your dinner, be quick. Then off to your study.’ And when he said this, he always looked angry. Usually I felt tired after school, like most students. But they wouldn’t allow me to have a rest. I was an understanding boy. I knew that my parents did it for my sake. They did it because they wanted me to have a good future. So, I put up with it.

Things, however, began to get more difficult and unbearable when they began to interfere with my friends. They would secretly come to school and ask the teacher, ‘Mr. Teacher, who is the best student in my son’s class?’ ‘Kamil’. Then they would ask me, ‘Who is your best friend?’
–Mahmut is my best friend.
-What about Kamil?
–He is a good boy but we are not friends.
-Look my boy, you must make friends with Kamil.

I hated this. But I didn’t know what to do. I went to the school consultant, Mr. Vahap Doğan, to talk about it. ‘You are right, Cemil’, he said, ‘But you must understand them, too. They are afraid that you will have bad friends and then a bad future.’
–I do understand them. But this is too much. I am only a teenager and I can’t bear it any more.
-Why don’t you talk to them?
–I tried several times.
-Then it is my turn. I will talk with your parents.

He did as he said. Nothing changed.
I left school. I ran away from home. I went to my uncle’s in another city. Fortunately, uncle listened to my problem, then telephoned my father and talked about it.”
Cemil went back home. But he never returned to the school. Now he is a truck driver. He says he is happy with his life. His father says they made a big mistake when he was at high school. Now they don’t interfere with his life.