Wapsi Square Forum

GlytchMeister wrote:Maybe it's because I'm closer to my teens than pretty much anyone else here, but it kinda irritates me when people imply that the first 18 years of life aren't "real life", like it is some kind of free trial that doesn't matter and doesn't count.

High school is incredibly shitty. Teens are going through changes to their bodies and their psyche when they are most vulnerable and while they are being thrust into responsibilities that they might not be ready for, all in what is probably the least healthy environment for all of that: surrounded by hordes of other teens going through the exact same bullshit....

Teenage years are life. And they are one of the hardest parts of life to go through, and they and the challenges therein are no less valid than any challenge faced later in life.

What you said.

Joss Whedon also said it, quite poignantly:

It doesn't take more than a casual reading of the newspaper to be very strongly reminded: by the time someone is old enough to vote, they've already had years to make choices and take actions that can irreversibly change the courses of their own lives, those of their families, and of total strangers. All too often this is by making bad choices... gangs, crime, alcohol and drugs, early pregnancy... and the consequences of these youthful choices may be with them for the rest of their lives.

Turning 18 doesn't magically wipe the slate clean. There's no instant transition between youth/folly/puppy-love and adulthood/wisdom/adult-relationships. More than a few "adults" never manage to become adult no matter how long they live.

The young feel just as strongly (at least!) as those of us with grey hair but it's all new to them... overwhelmingness, without the benefit of personal experience, or the full thinking-through-the-full-consequences toolkit which seems to take our brains about 25 years to acquire.

So, yeah, it tends to be dramatic. How could it be otherwise? The theme of Romeo and Juliet was an old one when Shakespeare penned his version of the story as a play... Pyramus and Thisbe goes back to Ovid. Thousands of years of youthful drama, and I don't expect it's going to stop any time soon.

The young feel just as strongly (at least!) as those of us with grey hair but it's all new to them... overwhelmingness, without the benefit of personal experience, or the full thinking-through-the-full-consequences toolkit which seems to take our brains about 25 years to acquire.

My guess is that if we acquired that toolkit before puberty, the human race would be extinct.

Wisdom comes from experience, and most of that from poor choices...

Sgt. Howard wrote:Wisdom comes from experience, and most of that from poor choices...

'Experience is that little voice telling you that this was a bad idea the first time you did it."

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Sgt. Howard wrote:Wisdom comes from experience, and most of that from poor choices...

'Experience is that little voice telling you that this was a bad idea the first time you did it."

"Sounds like a bad idea...

LET'S DO IT!!!"

"Experience is a lovely thing . . . It lets you recognize a mistake when you're about to make it again." -anon.

--FreeFlier

Sgt. Howard wrote:The scary thing is... I remember this sort of thing happening in High School... and I am pretty sure we didn't have any paranormals there... just teenagers...


...granted, there's not much difference from an emotional perspective...

The difference is at least one of this group has an explosive yield in the megaton range, and another with a much lower limit but still capable of taking out pretty much the entire school (and a good chunk of the adjoining elementary school). And nobody has said anything about what Hiroshi can do if the proper (depending on your point of view) button is pushed hard enough.

I don't recall reading that Shawna was capable of anything like that. Where are you folks hearing this?

I think he may mean Daylla?

Though Shawna, as a Pixie, might have similar powers as a Fae... we don't know, because Pablo hasn't told us.

Alkarii wrote:I don't recall reading that Shawna was capable of anything like that. Where are you folks hearing this?

Possibly Hiroshi? Remember what we've been told that the fae are capable of.