I am always amazed at most people's attitudes towards their teen years. I remember the hormones and feeling like every problem that arose was the biggest ANYONE had EVER had, but for the most part I felt accepted, confident and well liked. I recognize that this is an unusual position to be in since most teens do not feel that way and I remember middle school being the worst 3 years of my life, but high school was fun. I had smart and fairly responsible friends, school and achievement were important to me and my parents supported me almost unconditionally. I knew people at school who seemed eternally miserable but I think I chalked it up to a bad home situation or simply seeking attention for their own personal miseries. I never realized that a huge percentage of teens feel that way all or most of the time until I got to college and heard people recall their high school experiences.
My school was public but had an entrance exam that weeded out a lot of the bad element in Providence where I grew up. Sports were mostly sidelined for academic achievement groups like debate, math team and science olympiad. There were a couple of popular cliques but most of the school fell into social groups that were somewhat self contained and very diverse. The animosity between groups wasn't as prevalent as in most of the teen movies I've seen or accounts from peers. I think this experience left me lacking in the angst that so many adolescents seem to have coursing through their veins. This by extension is probably the reason teens seem so foreign to me. I want to figure out how to change that.
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I don't think you're alone in having a good high school experience...Mine wasn't so bad either, but like yours, middle school was awful.
ReplyDeleteAs for the lit, again, some teens are drawn to the dark; others are drawn to it because they like to read a good story. A book that was happy all the way through would probably be pretty booooooring.