I’m not cool or young anymore

By today’s standards, I’m a loser. What I found fun and what I still enjoy today, is a snooze to today’s young people.

I’ve never lit on fire someone else’s property, I’ve never smashed windows, I’ve never stolen a vehicle, I’ve never had random sex with a stranger, I’ve never done illegal drugs at a party, I’ve never smoked a cigarette.

Not to say all young people nowadays enjoy these activities, but an increasing number of them are thinking the mainstream law-abiding lifestyle is just too plain. As a result, it’s more fun to do your own thing and not think of other people.

I’m no angel. I’ll admit that out in the country when I was 15 or 16 I was drinking a little too much with my friends. We weren’t out causing trouble, we were at the cottage with parents supervising. Not that this makes underage drinking acceptable, but at least we weren’t going around deliberately doing things for either attention or just for kicks.

I remember when I was in grade 9 and a classmate had sex with someone. None of her peers could believe it because it was unheard of at that time. Now, students are openly talking about it and they are much younger.

“I haven’t had sex in like three months,” one girl said to her friend while walking behind me the other day. She didn’t look much older than 14 or 15 and it was shocking to hear something like that from a little girl.

Perhaps it all goes back to priorities and where motivation comes from to make something out of life. In high school I knew I wanted to be a writer and I started looking at avenues to pursue that dream. I was so focused on accomplishing that, that I didn’t have time to sit around, be bored and raise hell.

I used to laugh when I was a teenager and heard parents say, “It’s so much more difficult to grow up today than when I was young.”

Now I feel like one of those old people and I just shake my head and be thankful I’m not having to grow up in a reckless society. Sometimes it’s bad enough just living in it.