Lesson 15
As puberty progresses, something else happens. Your endocrine system also awakens your exocrine system. Your exocrine system will be secreting more oil and perspiration than you care for. You'll notice hair growth, voice change, the unfortunate skin changes associated with puberty and some new curves in your physique.
You will also be secreting pheromones. These are chemicals which contribute to your body odor. In a subconscious fashion these pheromones can make you attractive to others.
There is the potential for the reproductive drive, powered by your endocrine system, to have you seek a connection beyond yourself. This is an opportunity for this drive to be tempered and for you to still find a unity greater than yourself with another individual. An individual's ability to find itself as an integral part of an entity greater than itself is a unique state, often described as being in love.
I admitted earlier that the intellect has difficulty with emotions and I'll not attempt to explain love for you. There are more than enough poems, songs and movies already describing it to you in all its variations. At this point you may be saying "Wait a minute, I didn't ask for these changes!"
Your body has been structured with a very high density of sensory endings in the very parts associated with reproductive function. Your brain has been high jacked by an alien endocrine system and its team of hormones. And now people who last year wouldn't give you the time of day are staring your way and smiling invitingly! It seems things are stacked up against you and there is no holding them back. It is as if the reproductive necessity of the species demands your participation. With or without your permission, you are being asked to enter the adult world.You have been given a new vehicle and you have to learn how to drive it.
Just as you will, in a few short years, be given the chance to drive an automobile. You will need to learn the proper function of the vehicle's parts, the rules of the road, the laws governing driving and you will need practice operating this vehicle. There is a reason you will have a limited permit, not be able to drive after certain hours of the night and have limitations placed on the passengers permitted to drive with you.
Operating this new vehicle and later on, the car you may get to drive, carries a responsibility. Your safety and that of others around you is at stake. A demonstrated ability to drive responsibly is what earns you a full license. As you grow into an adult you are given new rights of self-determination, a chance to choose your own way and to make your own mistakes. With these rights comes a responsibility to society and to yourself.
Your endocrine system's call to your brain is the wake up call to become something greater than yourself. You are being called upon to participate in the world at large, beyond your self, your family, school class, local church and home community.
This is a huge task; in fact you will spend the rest of your life doing it.
Drive carefully and avoid those impacts that may result in undesired consequences.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you. I hope these lessons are a help to you. Remember, enjoy your self and be safe.
Dr. Russell Amundson