To be perfectly honest, I know I sound like a three year old when I repeat to my parents that I am "seventeen and a half!" The constant reminder, even if unnecessary. I'm pretty sure my mother remembers the day that she went through epic pain on her 27th birthday. Truth is, on reflection I don't think I'm reminding them- I'm reminding myself.
Not so much reminding perhaps, but trying to figure out what that means, that somehow by repeating the age I will figure out what the hell I am. My sister is 13, a teenager, a child. My mother and father are adults, and then there's me- seventeen and a half...what am I?!
Legally I'm not an adult for another six months
Technically I have the body of a woman
Mentally? It changes.
We had guests staying from Switzerland and my parents witty banter made me blush slightly when they announced to the table the topic of my "tantrums" included me screaming my exact age down the stairs, or muttering it under my breath in disagreement. At this point, one of them suggested very amusingly that I should announce what I want to be for the day. For example waking up and declaring "Today, I am a child" or "Today I am an adult" and sticking to that label throughout the day. I joked, noticing the amount of washing up after our meal as it was New Years and announced "Today, I am a child." My father then reminded me that children cannot drink champagne.
Although, I am guilty for changing my label, so do my parents. If they want something done and it isn't, or I having done the washing up I am an adult and I "should do this without thinking now". However, if I want to go out when I want then I have miraculously become a child and therefore cannot leave the house. (Although, my parents are pretty reasonable when it comes to going out)
I have many theories why I am so stuck in the middle.
1. Yes, I could leave school and get a job, but I am still dependent on my parents for food and shelter...and anything else I need.
2. Connecting to number one, they are paying for university, and therefore my future.
3. In six months I will be able to legally go clubbing, my parents can also tell me, no I cannot go.
4. I have the body of a woman, but I cannot reveal it inappropriatly because my father wouldn't let me out of the house.
5. I can have a boyfriend, yet he cannot sleep over.
6. I am dependent on lifts from my parents.
It's funny, I argue against most of the points...when I write it out, it makes sense...
oops.
sorry mum and dad, hopefully I'll get it before my eighteenth birthday...
Although sometimes I wonder if my parents really remember being my age, it's tough!I'm one of those people who needs to plan and needs to know what's going on before I do anything and yet, I have no idea where I stand.
I am in conflict with my own body.
Physically I am an adult
Mentally I am an adult (although I an act like a child occasionally)
So why on earth do I get treated like a child by some and an adult by others?!
So today, I am going to be a youth:
Old enough to know better,
Too young to care.
Thursday 7 January 2010
Binge Drinking and Knife Crime est. since 2007?
I think not.
As I was pouring my cereal this morning, and my mother was cleaning down the surfaces, there blazed the ultimate day-time morning TV show; Jeremy Kyle. For those who don't know, 'Jeremy Kyle' is a talk show similar to America's 'Jerry Springer', however unlike JS it's a lot more realistic, British and they actually help the members on the show. This was a bit of a different episode though, the host went out on the streets of Britain to "tackle" teenage binge drinking. My mother at this point shook her head and spoke about "how this wasn't around in her day" (my mother isn't eighty to point out, she's only talking thirty years ago) and how she believed this 'new founded' binge drinking was down to the lack of respect the youth of today had gained. I, being an A level Sociology student wanted to scream, yet for once, I kept my mouth shut.
I have my AS exams next week and to prepare I went to my Sociology teacher's house for help with revision. I asked her what she thought of the "rise of binge drinking" and the rise of under aged drinking. She left the room and came back with a piece of paper; a newspaper article over one hundred years old, and guess what? It was all about binge drinking. Now, me being me and being seventeen (which I love to point out to my parents at least once a day) ate this up.
The thing is, it's all a moral panic, many will disagree with me I know, but the youth of today have such a disgraceful light shone upon them I had to share my opinion. I believe the media to have more power than we give them credit for. I'm not one of those weird conspiracy people, but the media does arguably change and somewhat control society. All the news seems to talk about at the moment is knife crime and binge drinking; the rise of it...I'd like to point out I haven't been around long and my history knowledge isn't too fantastic but I'm pretty sure there were knives before I was born, and alcohol for that matter, and alcohol addicts. I wish sometimes my parents would stop to think of the possibility that perhaps the media is sensationalising for more viewings? After all, it still fights for viewings...technically it's a TV show, how far will they take it?
I'm not naive. I know that knife crime has in fact doubled in the last two years...but you've guessed it! I blame the media! There was a tiny rise in knife crime a few years ago and BOOM they've attacked it, broadcast it, the works; let the moral panic begin. Then more and more young people start carrying knives. Coincidence? I think not. Ask a teenage boy why he carried a knife, I dare you. The answer is disturbing and unsettling; "I carry a knife for protection."
I ask you now to open your minds.
As I was pouring my cereal this morning, and my mother was cleaning down the surfaces, there blazed the ultimate day-time morning TV show; Jeremy Kyle. For those who don't know, 'Jeremy Kyle' is a talk show similar to America's 'Jerry Springer', however unlike JS it's a lot more realistic, British and they actually help the members on the show. This was a bit of a different episode though, the host went out on the streets of Britain to "tackle" teenage binge drinking. My mother at this point shook her head and spoke about "how this wasn't around in her day" (my mother isn't eighty to point out, she's only talking thirty years ago) and how she believed this 'new founded' binge drinking was down to the lack of respect the youth of today had gained. I, being an A level Sociology student wanted to scream, yet for once, I kept my mouth shut.
I have my AS exams next week and to prepare I went to my Sociology teacher's house for help with revision. I asked her what she thought of the "rise of binge drinking" and the rise of under aged drinking. She left the room and came back with a piece of paper; a newspaper article over one hundred years old, and guess what? It was all about binge drinking. Now, me being me and being seventeen (which I love to point out to my parents at least once a day) ate this up.
The thing is, it's all a moral panic, many will disagree with me I know, but the youth of today have such a disgraceful light shone upon them I had to share my opinion. I believe the media to have more power than we give them credit for. I'm not one of those weird conspiracy people, but the media does arguably change and somewhat control society. All the news seems to talk about at the moment is knife crime and binge drinking; the rise of it...I'd like to point out I haven't been around long and my history knowledge isn't too fantastic but I'm pretty sure there were knives before I was born, and alcohol for that matter, and alcohol addicts. I wish sometimes my parents would stop to think of the possibility that perhaps the media is sensationalising for more viewings? After all, it still fights for viewings...technically it's a TV show, how far will they take it?
I'm not naive. I know that knife crime has in fact doubled in the last two years...but you've guessed it! I blame the media! There was a tiny rise in knife crime a few years ago and BOOM they've attacked it, broadcast it, the works; let the moral panic begin. Then more and more young people start carrying knives. Coincidence? I think not. Ask a teenage boy why he carried a knife, I dare you. The answer is disturbing and unsettling; "I carry a knife for protection."
I ask you now to open your minds.
- Slight rise in knife crime, media 'advertise' this
- Young people learn of others carrying knives
- Young people worry and carry them for protection
These days we can see everything anywhere, CCTV allows us to view every street corner... thirty years ago we didn't have that sort of technology, think about sixty or even one hundred years ago. Perhaps we never noticed it before? Perhaps the police have cracked down on certain crimes and therefore charged more people with these crimes?
Point is, The Kings and Queens of Britain have been known to drink themselves into a paralytic state and 'brave' men fought with a sword for a woman's heart.
Have things really changed?
I think not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
