I thought that when I came to college that things would be different. I came here thinking that the people would be more mature, smarter, and actually want to be here since they chose to be. I was wrong. People still talk in class, there is no respect, and no one has any sort of threshold for silence. I've always felt like I was more mature than those around me and that I always have been older than my age, but it's even worse now. When I was 12 I felt 15, when 16, I felt 20, and now at almost 20, I feel 28. That's a big jump. But it's not just me, it's also those around me. The people here seem 15 and they're 20 or more mostly. I just don't understand how society has regressed this much in just a matter of years. I hate it. The thing is though, it's probably the same anywhere in the US.
I have always felt out of place and have never felt comfortable in my skin, but I thought it would eventually even out, but no. The same phenomenon has occurred in my relationships. The range has gone from 17 when I was 14, 23 when I was 16, 27 when 18, and now 34 at 19. It's astounding. I'm not even sure why it's happened, but I've found that the people I hang around are usually of an older crowd, and increasingly so in the past few years. All because the people my age are absolutely, wonderfully, tarded. And I hate them. Even now, most of my best friends are around 22 to 26 at school and 28 to 35 back home.
Because of those I surround myself with, no matter the situation, people still think I'm about 24, especially when around the 30's crowd. I'm not complaining, because I hate my actual age - there's too much stigma to the word 'teenager' and I can't wait til I turn 20 so it will be slightly easier, and then 21 so that it will be official by law that I am actually an adult and have all the same rights as everyone else. That is the only thing in my life that I cannot change - my age - and it is the most detrimental.
I suppose that is just how life is, but I can't help but wonder how different things would be if I had been born several years earlier so that I'd actually be with the generation to which I belong. My parents were raised a certain way, and that was an old-fashioned, but respectful and wholesome way. I was raised in a world with respect for your elders as well as your peers, politeness, and little money. A world without sexism, racism, and cursing. At around 14 I was exposed to all three of these when I entered the workforce.
Kids today are raised by day care centers, their parents see them on nights and weekends, and once they get into a school where they have homework, the parents are too busy to try to help them with it, hence the 'no child left behind' tactic. When a kid can't do the work, you just push him through to the next grade so that no one fails. It makes them think it's okay to be mediocre and to not put any effort into studying or anything for that matter. It allows parents to be lazy and go to work for 45 hours a week, ignoring family responsibilities, and thinking that 80k is not enough to live on, so they both work and stay away from home. And another thing - children - most parents today only have them because they got pregnant in high school and decide it's a better idea to keep the kid, maybe get married, and then destroy the rest of their lives. One decision by one person can rip apart 3 people or more these days - all because they make the wrong choice and decide that it's okay to have a child when you're 18, unemployed, unskilled, and alone. Well here's a newsflash for you: it's not.
My high school class had about 5 or 600 people in it when we were freshman, and by the time graduation rolled around, there were about 400, if that. The reason for this precipitous decline? Teen pregnancy, drugs, guns, and drinking. They all made stupid decisions and dropped out, got themselves expelled, or killed. You'd think it would be sad, but no, it's just pathetic. So many young lives ruined because of poor decisions brought about by poor raising. Their parents were about 45 then, many who got pregnant very young, possibly in high school, and they come from an age of free love, disrespect, and drugs. They were rebels and didn't listen to anything their parents told them. So I don't blame the parents born before 1950, because it wasn't their fault, and well, that's the age my parents came from. They learned how to raise children properly and prevented the 'baby boomers' influence from ever poisoning my bloodline.
Because of my upbringing, I have an odd aversion to drunken parties and drugs, I mean I dabbled briefly in the rebellious arts, but learned that it's really not all it's cracked up to be. And even without those things I am a fun person to hang out with, I have better, truer friends, and have nothing to hide from my parents. That's a large factor with kids not respecting their parents today too - they keep so many secrets from them and do all these stupid things. It's nonsense honestly. They think they can run around and do whatever they want and get away with it. Then someday the real world will hit them in the face like a ton of bricks and they'll realize that they really should have listened to their parents and wish that they had some kind of actual skills to be able to make it in the world. But then again, that's what the food service industry is for.
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