Acting nonchalant and aloof to try to seem cool is a tradition among teenagers dating back to ancient times! There are bible verses where a mother wonders why her sons can’t be more like that David boy who slew a giant. (no there aren’t)
But I agree with you that it’s worrisome these days when there aren‘t many paths to economic security that don’t require putting effort into education.
Something I realized decades after high school was the small group of kids playing Dungeons and Dragons at school were really onto something! They were a close group who did something creative together even though the rest of the school looked down on them.
Jan 23, 2025
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I had a strict self-imposed morning routine starting in elementary school where I would set an alarm to wake up at 5:00 am, get up and go to the backyard where I would do circuits alternating between running laps, jumping rope, jumping jacks, push-ups, and crunches. Then I would sit and watch Pappyland, Golden Girls, and knitting shows until my dad made me breakfast and I would try to get to school very early just so that I could be there before other people were.
I wanted to be a standup comedian when I was four, then a news broadcaster, then an author, to name a few. I wrote a novella in fifth grade and shared it with everyone I could. I loved agility training my dog Holly. I was a voracious reader and checked out every book out in my school library to the point my school librarian started bringing me her own books from home that she thought I would be interested in.
I had approximately one million Barbie dolls and their associated accessories and I liked to make outfits for them and have them act out news broadcasts and murder mysteries. I would take roly polies from the dirt or crickets from the pet store and build habitats for them. I liked gardening with my dad, pulling weeds, propagating cuttings, and planting seeds. I loved going to the zoo and watching movies on TCM with my mom!
My dad is an artist and taught me the fundamentals of art and to use all kinds of different mediums, but my favorite was oil pastel. I enjoyed doing still lives the most. I liked to rearrange and decorate my bedroom—once I made a closet breakfast nook that I was really excited about; I called it Dorothea’s Cafe after my late grandmother and decorated it with her embroideries. I loved Nancy Drew games and other computer games. At night I would take bubble baths in the dark and play whale sounds in my Barbie car that had a built in CD player.
As I got older, I was in youth symphony orchestra (I played viola which is so me), choir, school musicals (wanted to be a Broadway star until I realized I couldn’t dance but also I kept getting cast as a boy), math club, and speech competitions (poetry readings and dramatic readings were my favorite). I liked to write original fiction and comics for my weird goth/emo/scene anime nerd friends to read. I did get into anime and manga at this time and I loved reading nonfiction to learn about as many things as I could.
In high school I gradually retreated into my shell after a series of traumatic experiences, one of which I’m writing about now, until basically I stopped doing all extracurriculars except for Japanese Club (lol). I just really loved my Japanese language teacher and wanted to spend more time with her :-) by that time I would just read classic tones and furiously scribble poetry and drawings by myself. I also liked to collage and do photography and I unfortunately became a Tumblr user. That’s about it…
Oct 18, 2024
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That’s the only one I can actually think of at the moment where I was unusual or stood out. Any kind of physical skill was off the table for me LOL. I was assessed at a college reading level in first grade and I read every book in the school library (even the completely random ones like a random Arnold Schwarzenegger workout book despite having no interest in this—my eyes just wanted to scan text and process information) to the point that our school librarian would bring books from her own personal collection for me to read.
I would go to the public library throughout my tweens and teens and check out 30 books at a time nonfiction and fiction and challenge myself to read them all before they were due. Collecting and finding them all to return to the library was always a struggle.
In elementary school I would finish my work in class long before anybody else and my teachers didn’t know what to do with me so they would just let me sit and read for the entire school day. We had a solar system Accelerated Reader chart for the whole school where the more you read the further out you got from the sun and I was always alone out on Pluto.
A few years after I graduated I ran into someone at a gay bar who had always gone to the same schools as me but below me by a couple of years and they were so starstruck to meet me and said I was like Harry Potter to them 😐
Apr 28, 2024
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I am a teacher and just came back from year 9 camp and honestly seeing Year 9 girls at the final night disco (lol) gather together in a circle and scream lyrics they love, whilst wearing crop tops and sweats, long hair everywhere, clutching at their hearts and each other and singing so dramatically and passionately I was like yeah, you guys are the best.
Also some of them are terrifyingly mean. They are able to shred my sense of self into ribbons with just one cunty response- but I kinda think that is great too.
Feb 2, 2024
Top Recs from @bee1000
The occupation persists, the oppression persists, the torture persists.
The occupiers are psychotic and their work is never finished.
People who’ve paid attention won’t be surprised by this photo from Gaza.
Jan 22, 2025
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Give people like jilly a break!
I actually practice what I preach on this one 😇
Jan 25, 2025
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