teen talk

Erin I traveled to Lexington yesterday morning to pick up Emily from cheerleading camp.  Camp ended with a competition of squads performing new cheers they learned .  It was neat to watch and to see all the different uniform styles and colors.  Hair bows are part of the uniform for most schools, but I still think wearing them the way our coach wants them looks…well, silly.

 

The drive home was harrowing.  For nearly 90 minutes I drove half the speed limit (or even slower than that at times) through a horrendous thunderstorm.  With my wipers going as fast as they could go, I crept along with my emergency lights flashing in hopes that nobody would rear-end us.  At one point, lightning struck a tree just in front of us alongside the road.  There was a brilliant flash of light followed by a shower of blazing sparks, and a most delightful bang.  WOW!!!  The girls didn’t even wake up.  I considered pulling off the road several times, but was concerned I might run into somebody who was already off, or maybe somebody would hit me.  It was very hard to see.

  

Just before the rain became a bad storm, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch.  Emily was starving because camp food was not so wonderful.  The girls talked at warp speed; lots of catching up to do after 4 days of separation.  I like to listen to them.  It’s interesting to see how their world is so different from how mine was at age 17.

 

For one thing, kids are much more casual about sex (that’s no surprise given what is in the media these days).  There was lots of discussion about who is doing who, who is mad at who, who has announced they are  gay/bi/lesbian.  One interesting part of the conversation was, “He’ll do anything that’s wearing lipstick.”  Later, as they were talking about someone else, “OMG!  He’ll do anything that moves.”  How can I not laugh at a comment like that?  

At one point, they were discussing recent sub-tweets (subversive tweets on twitter).  This is when you say one thing for the purpose of not saying what you really mean.  Sub-tweets can be positive or negative, but most of the time they are negative.  E.G., a girl tweets, “I’m so lonely now that a blonde slutty bitch stole my boyfriend”.  Or, “I had no idea Joe likes fat girls”.  Of course the person who makes the comment knows everybody knows who she’s targeting.

 

I also learned there is a whole different classification system than when I went to school.  In my high school, you were popular, or not popular.  I was definitely not popular.  It’s much more complicated now.  The kids fall into cliques, and you can change from one clique to another over time (well some cliques anyway), but you can’t belong to two at once (no clique hybrid kids). 

  

Clique	Description
Average	Anyone who doesn’t belong in another clique
Nerd	Bookworm type, very good grades, high achiever
Band Geek	Anyone in band regardless of other characteristics
Prep	Designer label clothes, expensive cars, upper class neighborhood, arrogance, expensive vacations
Slut	Promiscuous girl
Slut Wanna Be	Girl who pretends to be a slut so she can get boys to like her
Lesbians	Girls who do girls (duh)
Jocks	Athlete boys or girls
Emo	Wears black, hair dyed black, dark eye makeup, acts depressed and sullen, cuts where people can see it
Goth	Dresses like Emo but doesn’t cut, heavy metal music, piercings
Scene Kids	Look-at-me types, crazy hair and makeup (Google for images)
Druggies	People who drink and do drugs and want everyone to know it
Weirdo or Outcast	Somebody who doesn’t fit any clique and is not Average

I asked my girls which clique(s) they belong to.  Fortunately, they both said they are Average.  Erin commented that she was a Weirdo until she got a boyfriend this year.  How sad for her, but oddly enough, both girls have always had plenty of friends.  There is no clique for gay boys.  Apparently girls are much more likely to admit they are lesbian or bi than boys are.

 

I’m sure it can’t all be so cut and dry, but high school is a dreadful place these days.  My girls are excited about being seniors, worried about all the big decisions they have to make soon, but at the same time, so ready to get high school over with.  They are ready to get on with their lives.

Average?