Kids These Days
October 26, 2009
I can still buy clothes in the juniors’ section of the store. I am frequently carded for entrance into bars and the occasional box of Sudafed. I have—as they say—that youthful exuberance that hasn’t aged me a day past 18.
In preparation for attending a homecoming football game at the high school my husband teaches at, he made sure I had an entry bracelet and another teacher to hang out with while he was on the field coaching. He told me not to wear one of his t-shirts that would announce to the world that I was a fan of the home team. When I asked him why I was prohibited from wearing such a shirt, he simply said that I’d blend in with the students, and the administrators harass the students. “No good reason for you to be harassed just to watch me coach a football game,” he said, shrugging.
But let’s call it what it is. Despite the young face, the hip clothes and the carefree attitude, I have nothing in common with today’s youth. Once I arrived at the football game, I realized that there was more than just ten years separating me from these kids. There are light years of experience and maturity that can’t be measured by age alone.
In high school, my friends and I were quick to conform with the non-conformists, so I was surprised to realize that every girl had the same haircut. Not a single one had a hair style that didn’t drop below her shoulders. With my exceptionally short hair, that was definitely the first strike against my ability to fit in with them. The boys wore pants painted onto their legs and beanies (in 85-degree heat!) to keep their hair pressed over their eyes. F-bombs dropped from their lips like common pronouns. Couples lounged across the chairs, making out in front of the entire student body. Every single student had a cell phone fancier than mine. If this generation isn’t called Gen-Tech, it should be.
Blending in with the student body was hardly an issue.
The high school my husband my teaches at is a magnet school, so all of these kids went through a rigorous application and interview process to get in. These kids will leave high school with technical diplomas in fields ranging from culinary and biotechnology to engineering and media studies. These aren’t your average high school kids at all.
Yet, as I sat at the football game looking around at this energetic group of teenagers, I realized that I may have aged a few years since I, too, razzed the rival team, but ten years from now, these same kids will be standing in my shoes, looking back into time, thinking about their homecoming football game, contemplating the nature of kids these days.