“Reckless, thoughtless, irrational, impetuous, irresponsible! Didn’t you think for one second…?”
Familiar words — after the event! As you stare at your feet and face the consequences of whatever it is you’ve said or done, the question doesn’t need answering because the answer is already obvious:-
(a) No I didn’t think or
(b) Yes I did think, but I did it anyway
Either way the result is the same. Either way, you can’t turn back the clock. Impulsive decisions come from somewhere deep inside us — and no, you don’t consider the consequences; that is the whole point. They are often game-changers; setting you off on a different path that subtly (or not so subtly) alters the way you interact with the world around you.
There’s no shortage of examples in YA literature. Saba, in Moira Young’s Blood Red Road, doesn’t sit around making careful plans or carrying out risk-assessments. She acts on gut impulse and goes out in search of her brother with the words, “I don’t know where I’m going or how long it’ll take me.” Some might call her reckless, impetuous, irresponsible and irrational; others clever and courageous. She is prepared to take the risks and brave the consequences. The same can be said of Todd in Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking series. That’s what makes these characters so compelling.
But risk isn’t just the stuff of fiction and impulsive decisions don’t have to be of epic proportions. If you think about it, you’ll probably find that each day you are faced with decisions that involve an element of risk — moral, emotional or physical.
In a stroke of evolutionary genius, teenagers are hard-wired to take risks; hard wired not to overthink consequences (which is completely different, of course, to not caring about consequences). Being a teenager is a risky business. It’s about day to day survival in a world which is full of unrelenting pressure; pressure to achieve, to conform, to do what is expected by family, friends, teachers or significant others, pressure not to upset the status quo. In Phil Earle’s The Bubble Wrap Boy it is interesting to compare the different attitude of Charlie and his mother - Charlie wanting to be a normal teenager and his mother wanting, both literally and metaphorically, to wrap him in layers of protection.
So perhaps it is lucky that the part of the brain responsible for controlling impulsive behaviour doesn’t fully mature until around 25. The alternative hardly bears thinking about!
If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next — if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions …you’d never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning.
Margaret Attwood, The Blind Assassin
There’s no doubt that taking risks can put you in the spotlight, sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes not. Doing the unexpected can win you admiration and respect, or expose you to misunderstanding and trouble. It can polarise those around you — not least because it challenges others to ask questions of themselves.
Yet however much you try to plan, however much people try to control your choices, there will always be moments when overpowering impulse compels you to take a leap into the unknown and do something unpredictable. It’s that moment when you turn left instead of right, it’s the moment you leave when everyone expects you to stay; when you follow your heart instead of your head. Like Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games, volunteering to take her sister’s place at “The Reapings” and thereby exposing herself to extreme risk, not to mention life or death consequences.
But in that one moment of impulsive decision nothing else matters. That happens later… and, ultimately, it is the way in which we deal with the consequences that helps to shape who we are and who we become. It’s about responsibility and resilience, but it’s also about possibility and opportunity. You can never go back, so you must search for a way forward.
I have always enjoyed challenging the characters in my books — pushing them to their limits and then a little bit further. In Broken Strings, Jess runs away from home to live with a grandmother she doesn’t know. She could never have guessed at the full impact of her decision. And Amber, in A Flash of Blue, becomes trapped in a train of events for which she feels entirely responsible. Part fate, part fault, her decisions leave her increasingly isolated and she is left with no option but to deal with the consequences.
Taking risks is not an excuse for stupidity or foolishness and being impulsive doesn’t mean there’s no room for thoughtful behaviour. But if we all did what was expected, if we were all entirely predictable and never took risks, then what would we become?
Pick up any story. Take out the risk and consequence and what are you left with? Reckless, impetuous and thoughtless? In a world which increasingly seeks to control, there is something liberating about impulsivity. Make the most of it while you’re young because, presumably, after the age of 25, we all become dull as ditchwater!
Maria Farrer’s latest book A Flash of Blue is available at the Guardian bookshop.