WTF - How To Be A Teen

'Lads, these steps are actually really uncomfortable. And you didn't even get my head in the photo!' (Thanks for the pic, http://iam-dollparts.tumblr.com/post/38059719612!)

A while back, I was distraught to read a blog post by a girl I've come to know and admire. Upon her sixteenth birthday, she wrote about how she was coming to believe that she was doing adolescence wrong - that she should be:

...doing things.

I feel like I should be sneaking out at night, going to parties, making memories. I feel like I should be buying cheap beer in the supermarkets and hanging out with my closest friends, talking about nothing and everything for hours. I feel like I should be taking lots and lots and lots of pictures in my camera. I feel like I should be lying on the floor of my room, looking up the ceiling, and listening to some sad indie music in my denim shorts and tie-dyed shirt. And yes, I know this is so stereotypical and even a tad discriminative of me, but, it just makes me worry. What if I'm not doing enough?

I want to be able to look back on these years and remember the rollercoaster feel of the time I've had. And I mean, I have made great memories. I have friends and a Friend who I wouldn't trade for anything in the world, and we've had amazing times with each other. But I just wonder if I'm making the most out of my youth. I wonder if this is enough. I'm sure that I would make more memories as I grow older but I'm already half-way through my teenage years and I'm not sure if I've lived in it enough...

As a seventeen year old, and therefore someone older and wiser, I feel it is my duty to set this straight.

That, first of all, is bullshit - that being seventeen gives me the authority to tell you how to be a teenager. Actually, no one really has that authority. And I think it is disgusting that we are given to believe that there is a formula for How To Be A Teen. I mean, it's easy to see why there is such a thing - so we buy stuff, but I'm not going to get into all that. You're sick of it anyway.

If you want to be sneaking out at night and going to parties and drinking beer and taking photos and listening to music on the floor of your room and all of that... if you want to, if it suits you, that is completely fine. What is not fine is that for this writer it feels obligatory, as if there's a mile-long checklist of important tasks that must be completed by the time you're 18 or 19 or 21 or whenever. That's just needless pressure that prevents you from doing what you really want to do with your time. And if you spend your time how you like, that's all that should matter. The only goal adolescents should have regarding their adolescence is getting through it without hurting themselves or anyone else, and emerging as an adult on the other side, even if it's hard to feel like an adult. And once that's done, you've just completed a successful adolescence. Gold star!

All of us who are teenagers now - I really don't want to use the word generation, it's become over-used - are 'doing' adolescence in a much different way than our parents did. With this new-fangled internet that's rotting our brains, for one, which I don't need to tell you about. And it's easier these days to be a person of colour or a girl or LGBT or all three than it was forty or thirty years ago, which is good. There are those that despair because teenagers these days don't have much to rebel against, apart from each other, but conformity years ago was more of an essential part of Being An Adult Person and getting a job and spouse, especially for women, which made rebellion lots more fun! But maybe it's this lack of conformity, set goals, a direct route to being a grown-up, that has resulted in record companies and film studios and retailers trying to put us on their routes instead. And everything is very confusing now.

I just think it's really sad that people who are leading perfectly adequate lives, even really good lives, people who are talented and kind and warm, feel as if they are not doing their life justice for no reason. That's all.

Smarter Than You Because I've Been Seventeen For One Month and Seventeen Days,

Eleanor Roscuro

HELLO EVERYONE LOOK OVER HERE

Hey everyone! I want to tell you something.

Books are great, I mean really great. There's a book I just finished reading, Prim Improper by Deirdre Sullivan. It has a pretty cover:

...and is very good and you should read it.

Things I Am Doing This Week:


~ Watching Horrible Histories, on Tuesday and Sunday. Because it's the best television show for ever and ever.
~ Going to the National Festival of Youth Theatres, run by NAYD. I am extremely excited.
~ Seeing Lovers by Brian Friel, directed by Geoff Rose in the Watergate Theatre.
~ Falling in love with Special Benny.

I'm sorry this isn't longer, but this post will act as a sneak peek of future topics, because I intend to elaborate on all the above items. But I can't now, because in twenty minutes I have to go to the above Festival of Youth Theatres, I'm representing Kilkenny Youth Theatre at it with six others. It's going to be brilliant.

RANDOM PICTURE TIME!

Bye!

Between The Barlines - Little Comets, The Lonely Island, Horrible Histories, Sleigh Bells

Hello, and welcome to Between The Barlines! If all goes well, you are reading this right as I'm starting my first Junior Cert exam, English Paper One. And I'll be wringing my hands and gnashing my teeth (worse case scenario) while you'll be listening to awesome music in the comfort of your own bed/garden/exam hall/palace/rock. You lucky things. Anyway, on with the show!

Little Comets - Joanna

Well, if you like catchy tunes, musical changes, and songs about girls, Joanna ticks all those boxes. Is it vain that I'm a girl with a three syllable name and I keep listening to this? Or am I really easy to shame? Anyway, let's have a listen, shall we?



The Lonely Island - Jack Sparrow

So last week Daydream Believer posted this music video on her blog, calling it the 'Funniest Thing Ever', endquote. Honestly, you don't argue with Ms. Believer. Besides, why would you? Even though I have absolutely no idea who Michael Bolton is (Who is he? A singer?) my fascination with pirates and my adoration of Pirates of the Caribbean (haven't seen the new one yet, is it good?) make this one of the funniest songs ever, even if a little too obscene for my taste. Plus, it's catchy and clever.



Horrible Histories - Dick Turpin

Oh, Horrible Histories. See, I've always loved your books, ever since I was a kid, still do, and then you bring out a TV series? And that TV series turns out to be the best thing on television I have ever seen? Oh, you spoil me. And then, in the very first episode of the third series, your musical number is an Adam and the Ants take on the life of Dick Turpin, the famous highwayman? And when that musical number turns out to be so good? In the past few days, I have listened to it almost one hundred and fifty times. Seriously, this song is slowly but surely taking over Tumblr, and soon, the WORLD!



Horrible Histories - Literally: The Viking Song

As we all know, the Vikings liked pillaging monasteries, stealing gold, killing monks, that sort of thing. Another thing they liked was belting out soft rock classics, as shown in this Horrible ballad. Dare I say it... LITERALLY!!! *headbang* Also, a nice Queen homage in bits. I think I will do a Horrible Histories post soon! Yes!



Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill

For the first minute and a half of this video, I couldn't stop thinking 'Why the HELL is she driving on the wrong side of the car?!' But I suppose that's how they do it on the other side of the world. But anyway.
Compared to other songs on Treats, like Kids or Riot Rhythm, Rill Rill is a lot more paced, but doesn't really lose any energy that Treats had previous. I mean, it might make you feel more lethargic, but that's not the point. It's a good song!



And that marks the end of today's Between The Barlines! If I am very lucky, I might write a post about Horrible Histories before the exams end on June 17th. Might. Anyway, see you on the other side!

Eleanor Roscuro