Embracing the Stereotype

   This first post is going to be about just how young and dumb I may appear to be. Come to think of it, it's about how young and dumb the entire teenage population of this great nation appears to be. Now, let's be honest here: a vast majority of us are total knuckleheads, but I refuse to allow the vocal idiots to become the poster-children of a largely misunderstood sector of the youth.
  Ah, yes, that very fine transition sentence brings me to my first stereotype that I am willing to embrace: misunderstanding. But let's all keep in mind that I am only embracing this aspect of my every day life because the first step to solving a problem is understanding and accepting it. Ok, now that we're back on track I can continue. I have lost count of the number of times I have been placed in a situation based on the fact that what I had been trying to say or do was completely misinterpreted by my elders. This is the very communication break-down that has been the bane of every human being's existence since the cave men first roamed the great expanse of this planet Earth. "Why?" you ask. I will tell you why: it is because we are too fucking terrified to voice our opinions coherently. We are so used to being brushed off that we end up mumbling nonsensical statements on the mental status of our caretakers, which inevitably results in the dismissal of any thoughts that we may have had on the subject. It is this seemingly titanic generation gap that makes us hold our tongues until we are in the company of others in the same trouble as us. God forbid a boy wants to do theater, or a girl wants to do football.
   But hold on, I'm not finished. Before you parents that may stumble upon this whilst searching your child's internet history for porn rip me a new one, I do understand that some children just aren't meant to do certain things. But how can any one person know what they're good at until they have attempted everything they possibly can? By trying to shield us from the cruel face of rejection that is the human race, you only end up hurting us by saying that we're not good enough to pursue something. Yeah, yeah, that's not what you said verbatim, but it's how anyone on the receiving end of that dreaded lecture heard it all. Which is another part of the whole subject of being misunderstood.
   You see, every trait that I will list throughout the duration of this blog is not only applicable to us; it's applicable to everybody. The only difference is that teenagers get so frustrated over them because we don't accept the shittiness of life. We don't want to. And in case you haven't noticed, all the best people never really do. There's always a way to make things work or make things better. There really aren't any excuses.
   But really, adults are largely misunderstood as well. Just think about it: it's the basis of sooo much of our comedy these days. The awkwardness of conversation and physical reactions. Most adults hate it, but they accept it and move on. Teenagers hate it, but we can't seem to accept it and move on; we want to go back and try again and again, but the thing is, most of the adults in our lives will pretty much tell us to suck it up and give it up because to them it isn't worth it. That is unbelievably shitty behavior that is completely unacceptable. Yeah, there are times when you should have better things to do, but that's something that we need to learn on our own. Trust me, we will figure that out. It may be the hard way, but at least with the hard way we won't forget the lesson.
   To top off this lovely little essay of a peek into the mind of a defiant youth I will leave you with this: communication is key. God, I feel like I'm writing a parenting blog. I should retitle it something like, "A Parent's Guide to the Shitty-Ass Motherfucker They Call a Child." But for real now, everybody, the generation gap is just a piece of shit. There is no reason for you to not just open up and be honest with one another. And I repeat: that goes for everyone. If you're having a tough time having a real talk with someone, simply being honest and asking them to be honest back will work most of the time. Of course there's always going to be the person that just walks away and doesn't want anything to do with you for a while. But I've been there (I'm pretty sure my mother was filled with a special kind of seething rage for me for a while) and what I did was I got her a bit before she had to leave for work. I sat her down and said, "I need to talk to you about some stuff, and the only thing I ask is that I have no interruptions because this is really important to me and I don't want this to end up in a fight. I will answer your questions after I've finished." How pretentious of an at-the-time sixteen-year-old, right? Wrong. It's not like I was a total cunt about it. I mean, yeah, it sounds pretty shitty when you read it off in your head, but I was being honest, and I got my point across, and more importantly: my mother actually got where I was coming from, which was ultimately my goal. If you have something really important to tell someone, come clean. And think about it before you do. It may kinda catch the other off guard a bit, but if clarity is what you're yearning for, that's the way to go.
   Misunderstanding (or more accurately miscommunication), is a problem that can be fought. We just gotta stop being dicks about it, everyone. There's no way any one person can feel exactly what any one other person is feeling at a specific moment in time, so stop being a whiny bitch and try to help someone if you see they're in pain.