The main temp job that I work is at a place that scores open-ended questions for state-standradized tests. It's not that enjoyable, really, but it pays well enough so that's alright. Aside from that, it is very interesting in that I read a lot of kids' thoughts as they try to answer the questions that they've been asked.
Well, the one that I am doing right now has to do with a critique of an awfully written essay by supposed high school student, and I'm reading all sorts of stuff, but one theme keeps occurring every now and then amongst the high school juniors taking the test -- "the real world".
It throws me back to high school and the way that I and my friends would always say, "yeah, high school's this way, but the real world is that way..." or something to that effect. I believed in its existence, I honestly did, and I had grand expectations for its granduer. Hell, I yearned for "the real world" and the way that the things of importance in high school would fade away. I dreamt of a land where people weren't picked on for ridiculously petty things, where it wasn't about who you were dating or what teams you were on, where you didn't have to feel like a loser because you didn't have plans every night, where life was good and you could make of it what you wanted. I couldn't wait. And, when I finally got there, it truly was grand.
But lately I've been thinking about how different it truly is.
I've come to the conclusion that it's not. Life as a twenty-something is still all about who you're dating and what you're social status is, how much money you're making and all of that. The rules are different, but not all that much so. Honestly. And the differences are diminishing by the day.
Friends, and by "friends" in this case I refer to everyone I know that is around my age, still seem stigmatised by their relationship status. If you're not seeing anyone, you're a loser. Certainly, that sort of status does not have the damning influences as they did in high school...but they are there. But if you are seeing someone, or you are in the "dating scene" as it were, the rules are not really any different than in high school. I mean, it's all about tail. It's all about finding someone, "hooking up", and exploiting that person until you get sick of them. In high school the exploitation only lasts a few months because there are no expectations beyond getting laid, but in "the real world" there's much more -- there's the financial aspect, and the family aspect, and the whole "getting your life in order" sort of thing...but it's no different. Not really. I could tell the story of two people meeting and "falling in love" and, if I left out the time periods involved, subesquently breaking up and you'd have no idea if I was talking about high school kids or twenty-somethings. Seriously. Two people meet and make out...they hold hands everywhere they go, spending ridiculous amounts of time together and then start fucking. They talk to each other with stars in their eyes and tell each other that they're in love. They do this, all the while making out and giving head and fucking, until they realize that they're not in love, that they're in lust...what they thought was they're soulmate was nothing but a comfortable slot A for their nob B or vice versa...and they break up. If I said this happened in the course of two months or two years, it could be a high school couple...if I said it occurred over seventeen years it could be my parents. No foolin. It's the same...the mentality is there, nutured in high school, and fed by the pop culture propoganda machine beyond graduation. This is the way it is supposed to be and whether we are fifteen or twenty-five we fall for it. I mean, really, how many marriages between people that get married before twenty-five actually go the distance? Exactly.
But it's not just the dating game. It's everything else too. I mean, as a twenty-six year old I am not expected to be on a sports team at all (though because of my size I have been asked if I am from time to time, even lately)...but the question still arises from strangers, just in a different form from high school: "what do you do?" In school this question was asked in regard to extra-curricular activities, but in "the real world" it is asked in regard to vocation...with similar intent. There are "cool" things to do -- playing football in school or being a banker in "real life" -- and there are "uncool" things to do -- chess club in high school and pizza delivery in "real life". People hear your response and they judge your worth based on it. It's true. If you are "cool" than you get respect from people, if you're "uncool" in what you do you get pandered to...in each place.
Money too is the same. In high school it's all about what brand clothing you wear, what sort of car you drive, and the like. It's not at all different in "the real world". The projection of yourself to the world at large is deemed more important than who you really are. I know of oh so very few women that will go out, even to the grocery store, without wearing make-up. I know of very few guys who don't give a shit about how they look. I'm the only person that I know that would not feel at all self-conscious about driving the piece of shit car that I do...and they would feel self-conscious just because it would mean that other people would think "bad" things about them. It's the same as high school.
Now I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, though I very much do think it is, that people are like this. It's just an observation. As I said, I had always looked forward to getting out of the phoniness of high school existence and into "the real world"...it's just that now I'm noticing that it's not all that "real"....it's the same damn shit just with the stakes raised higher -- emotional, physical, and financial -- and the payouts anted up to match.
It being graduation time, I think it's important to tell the kids of today that their adulthoods of tomorrow are not going to be all that different.
Well, the one that I am doing right now has to do with a critique of an awfully written essay by supposed high school student, and I'm reading all sorts of stuff, but one theme keeps occurring every now and then amongst the high school juniors taking the test -- "the real world".
It throws me back to high school and the way that I and my friends would always say, "yeah, high school's this way, but the real world is that way..." or something to that effect. I believed in its existence, I honestly did, and I had grand expectations for its granduer. Hell, I yearned for "the real world" and the way that the things of importance in high school would fade away. I dreamt of a land where people weren't picked on for ridiculously petty things, where it wasn't about who you were dating or what teams you were on, where you didn't have to feel like a loser because you didn't have plans every night, where life was good and you could make of it what you wanted. I couldn't wait. And, when I finally got there, it truly was grand.
But lately I've been thinking about how different it truly is.
I've come to the conclusion that it's not. Life as a twenty-something is still all about who you're dating and what you're social status is, how much money you're making and all of that. The rules are different, but not all that much so. Honestly. And the differences are diminishing by the day.
Friends, and by "friends" in this case I refer to everyone I know that is around my age, still seem stigmatised by their relationship status. If you're not seeing anyone, you're a loser. Certainly, that sort of status does not have the damning influences as they did in high school...but they are there. But if you are seeing someone, or you are in the "dating scene" as it were, the rules are not really any different than in high school. I mean, it's all about tail. It's all about finding someone, "hooking up", and exploiting that person until you get sick of them. In high school the exploitation only lasts a few months because there are no expectations beyond getting laid, but in "the real world" there's much more -- there's the financial aspect, and the family aspect, and the whole "getting your life in order" sort of thing...but it's no different. Not really. I could tell the story of two people meeting and "falling in love" and, if I left out the time periods involved, subesquently breaking up and you'd have no idea if I was talking about high school kids or twenty-somethings. Seriously. Two people meet and make out...they hold hands everywhere they go, spending ridiculous amounts of time together and then start fucking. They talk to each other with stars in their eyes and tell each other that they're in love. They do this, all the while making out and giving head and fucking, until they realize that they're not in love, that they're in lust...what they thought was they're soulmate was nothing but a comfortable slot A for their nob B or vice versa...and they break up. If I said this happened in the course of two months or two years, it could be a high school couple...if I said it occurred over seventeen years it could be my parents. No foolin. It's the same...the mentality is there, nutured in high school, and fed by the pop culture propoganda machine beyond graduation. This is the way it is supposed to be and whether we are fifteen or twenty-five we fall for it. I mean, really, how many marriages between people that get married before twenty-five actually go the distance? Exactly.
But it's not just the dating game. It's everything else too. I mean, as a twenty-six year old I am not expected to be on a sports team at all (though because of my size I have been asked if I am from time to time, even lately)...but the question still arises from strangers, just in a different form from high school: "what do you do?" In school this question was asked in regard to extra-curricular activities, but in "the real world" it is asked in regard to vocation...with similar intent. There are "cool" things to do -- playing football in school or being a banker in "real life" -- and there are "uncool" things to do -- chess club in high school and pizza delivery in "real life". People hear your response and they judge your worth based on it. It's true. If you are "cool" than you get respect from people, if you're "uncool" in what you do you get pandered to...in each place.
Money too is the same. In high school it's all about what brand clothing you wear, what sort of car you drive, and the like. It's not at all different in "the real world". The projection of yourself to the world at large is deemed more important than who you really are. I know of oh so very few women that will go out, even to the grocery store, without wearing make-up. I know of very few guys who don't give a shit about how they look. I'm the only person that I know that would not feel at all self-conscious about driving the piece of shit car that I do...and they would feel self-conscious just because it would mean that other people would think "bad" things about them. It's the same as high school.
Now I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, though I very much do think it is, that people are like this. It's just an observation. As I said, I had always looked forward to getting out of the phoniness of high school existence and into "the real world"...it's just that now I'm noticing that it's not all that "real"....it's the same damn shit just with the stakes raised higher -- emotional, physical, and financial -- and the payouts anted up to match.
It being graduation time, I think it's important to tell the kids of today that their adulthoods of tomorrow are not going to be all that different.
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