this was a draft that I am just getting around to finishing now...you'll have to excuse my absence...I've been growing a baby and being lazy.
I'm co-directing a summer program for 105 incoming 9th graders, which I think I've mentioned before. I'm not really sure that this is the best job for me this summer because I'm hugely pregnant and this program is causing me a lot of stress...but I guess I didn't really have a choice.
Anyway...everyday I come home and think "what the fuck are these kids thinking??" (sorry mom, this warrants the f-word). Was I anything like this when I was 14?
Here are some examples of some what-the-fuck-ness that has gone down:
A question texted to me:
"So, what are couples actually allowed to do in Level 9?" (meaning to each other)
A question asked to my face:
"Can girls and boys share a room when we stay at the hotel in Idaho?"
A conversation with me:
Student:
"I know I wasn't supposed to soak anyone with water because I'll get a strike, but while you weren't looking I totally soaked 2 other students...honesty is the best policy, right?"
Me:
"Thanks for being honest, that's your first strike."
Student:
"What, really??"
Situation:
A Metro bus driver had to pull over, get up and yell at our students for their behavior on public transportation. Then she called Metro Police.
A conversation with me:
Refer to older blog post here.
A question asked to me:
Student:
"How was your birth?"
Me:
"I don't remember it, it was 31 years ago."
Student:
(confused)
Two ongoing battles:
1. Marker fights where the only objective is to mark the other person's face.
2. Water fights where the only objective is for YOU to get soaked by someone else. not to soak someone else.
When I was 14 I was riding the beach bus in the summer with Marjorie to Narragansett Beach to eat ice cream and lay out...and watch all the surfers. I was probably giving my parents a hard time about my curfew and having boys over late at night, but I was not doing anything bad. I feel like the students I worked with this summer are just so different from the 14 year old me and you. I know I swear a lot now, but I NEVER swore in front of or AT adults. I was not having sex with boys when I was 14. And had I decided to have sex that early...I would NEVER have talked about it so openly with my friends, enemies, random adults or anyone who would listen. I was not wearing booty shorts and showing off my boobs. Wait, I'm pretty sure I barely had boobs at 14. Geez!
As someone who is about to bring a baby boy into this world...I'm petrified about what kids will be doing when he is 14!!!
