Some Words for Teenagers

What happens to our children between the ages of 10 and 20? No matter how close parents are to their children prior to these years, and how close they are once the child becomes an adult, this is the decade of hell. I've spent some time with a few teens recently in different environments and this has been on my mind. This is my little advocacy for teens, I suppose.

Teenagers are at this awkward stage where they feel like they are adults but society isn’t ready to treat them like adults. I did some incredibly stupid and risky things as a teen (which I won’t write here for fear my mother will read this and have a heart attack) but overall I was a pretty responsible teen and I attribute that in large part to the independence I was allowed, and the faith my parents had in my ability to handle that independence. I’m not sure all teens are so lucky.

I was at the Teen Open Mic night at my library the evening of The Day of Silence, a day in which many teens show their feelings against gay-bullying by wearing a rainbow ribbon and not speaking all day. Teachers are encouraged to respect this and not call on them in class that day. I was really impressed to see how many teens were wearing ribbons around town that day. These teens were using their silence as their voice, but how many teenagers feel they have no voice and just need someone to hear them?

Many parents seem to forget what it was like to be a teenager. Teen’s feelings are discounted and dismissed as hormonally driven foolishness. The thing to remember here is whether they are hormonally driven or not, they are feelings important to that teen. You may think it’s silly that your teen is so upset about a Facebook post a friend made, but that teen doesn’t have to worry about bills and bosses and the housing market. Their social lives are their entire world, and that needs to be respected. Discounting their emotions simply creates the wall that so many parents later complain about.

Don’t get me wrong, when a teenager is bouncing around me hyped up on Red Bull and crinkling a potato chip bag I often want to tune them out, too. I know teenagers aren’t always easy to handle, but I think it is still important to listen to them, and more importantly to have some faith in them.


Side note: Check out the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” in Tennessee… I don’t even know where to begin on it at this point, but I wanted to mention it.
Don't Say Gay Bill

I Love Geeks

I was thinking I should update while I have a few minutes this afternoon and I couldn't think of anything to say so I went to mindbump to get a random prompt. The prompt was to write about something others think is silly that makes you happy.
I love geeks.
I love geeky stuff.
When I was two my father, the king of sci-fi geeks, introduced me to Doctor Who. I was very excited this week when this news link was posted on epbot. How cool would it be to find a Dalek in a pond!?

I've noticed a lot of geeks in children's movies recently and I love it. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" is an adorable movie in which the hero is a science nerd who doesn't understand metaphors. In "How To Train A Dragon" the kid is the same sort of wimpy geek who becomes a hero. I suppose that's why Belle was my favorite Disney princess when I was a child. She was the town geek who walked around with a book in hand and didn't care about boys or makeup.
I also love being aroung geeks. My partner doesn't like to admit she's a geek so I won't expose her geek-traits (even though she has plenty) but I will talk about Manda. Manda is one of my best friends and used to work at the pet store with me. We spent a lot of our time trading random useless facts. She would tell me what she'd learned about the biology of geckos while I told her the latest on the debate of who Jack the Ripper really was. Since she moved to Massachussetts this geeky habit has moved from verbal conversation to text messaging, but we still share and it's one of my favorite things in the world.
The geeks shall inherit the earth.
What silly thing makes you happy?

Things a Blind Child Wants You to Know

I'm working on a powerpoint presentation for work about what blind children do and don't need. The misconceptions are HUGE. Everytime I see someone look with pity at my client, or raise their voice to babytalk level and tell him he's doing a "good job" I cringe. (What is he doing a good job of? He's walking across the playground. Are you complimenting the other children on their amazing talents of putting one foot ahead of the other?)

These are the biggies:

-I've known many blind people. Not one has asked to feel my face to see what I look like.
-Don't clear the path, they aren't going to trip over everything. That's why they walk with mobility canes. In fact, I walk into way more furniture than they do. And blind children can play on school equipment just like any other child, in fact oftentimes they can do it better. They are more cautious than most children and their movement is more definitive. I've never seen a blind child fall off of a jungle gym, but I have seen a sighted child break their arm falling off of a swing.
-Don't babytalk! Don't infantalize! That only alienates the child. Being blind (or deaf, for that matter) doesn't make someone dumb. In fact, most of the blind people I know happen to have genius IQ's. The last thing they need is for you to dumb it down for them. Let them open their mouths and you'll be the one feeling like a child, trust me.
-Don't help unless they ask. They may not have all five senses, but that doesn't mean someone who is visually impaired isn't capable.
-Don't assume they have no eyesight. Very few people are actually 100% blind. Most people who are legally blind can see shapes, shadows, maybe even colors. They may spot you trying to sneak up on them or see the glow of your cell phone when you get a text message. Again, trust me.

My list is growing as I create this powerpoint... but some of these have been really bugging me lately so I wanted to vent.

BookGeek

I’m caught up in “Memoirs of a Geisha” and it is making it very difficult for me to think about anything else. I don’t want to blog or do homework or watch television. I just want to read this book. Since I can’t think about anything but this book I figured I would write about books in general, and my obsession/relationship with them.

I’m not really sure when I started to read but my mother loves to tell people that I was reading very young and was telling everyone I just “memorized” so that people wouldn’t get all excited that I could read so young. I’ve never really enjoyed being the center of attention I guess. As a child I devoured everything I could get my hands on. I was a big fan of Nancy Drew and The Boxcar Children.

I’m really excited to see “Water for Elephants” which comes out April 22nd. One of my favorite books of all time. I didn’t want that book to end when I read it. I'm praying that the movie version doesn't completely stink and I'm putting all my faith in Reese Witherspoon.

I'm still just as hooked on books today as I was when I was young so I wanted to share two book-related websites that I frequent often.

The first site is www.goodreads.com. On goodreads you can rate and review all the books you’ve read, develop a list of books to read (mine currently has 251 books on it) and you can take quizzes about literature, join groups that are about your favorite genre or authors. I love this site.

The other site I wanted to share is www.bookmooch.com. On bookmooch you can trade books with other people. You create a list of books you’re willing to give away and when someone requests one you mail it to them. Once it is received you get points toward requesting your own books.

Okay, that’s all the time I can take from reading. I’m going back to my book.

A Sappy Sestina

I'm attempting to write a poem a day for National Poetry Month. This one is yesterday's poem I just forgot to post it last night.


It’s been years but do you remember?
The unfinished bar walls and country music,
the tequila on your breath.
We danced alone around the pool
table. It was so fun and easy
and you whispered “I want to kiss

you.” Oh! That kiss! That kiss
that changed it all. Do you remember
how your fingers slipped with ease
into mine? The jukebox music
and the clack of balls on the pool
table. My heart pounded, my breath

caught in my throat. “Just breathe”
I reminded myself. That tumultuous kiss,
your drunken stumble against the pool
player. I wondered if you would remember
or if it would be a drunken fog of music
and tequila. I marveled at the ease

with which you stole my heart. How easily
you reached into my chest and halted my breath.
Everything changed. Movies, music
books, every time Romeo kissed
Juliet, Rhett kissed Scarlett, I remember
that night. I was lost in the pools

of your ebony eyes. Drowning in a pool
of angst and emotion. It’s still so easy
for me to remember falling, remember
the smile on your lips, tequila on your breath,
your hair down your back, and the kiss
that would change everything. The music

made us move. We accused the music
of starting it all. While people played pool
unaware of the cataclysmic kiss
occurring nearby. Unaware of how easily
you were changing my life. “Just breathe”
I would tell myself every time I remembered

that kiss. How easily I am lost
when I remember that world
of pool and music. “Just breathe.

Writer's Block

What's to say? Everyone hates writer's block, right?
I've begun four or five blog entries this week. Every single one has been thrown out.
I began writing about Maine's "Governor Flintstone", but I just didn't know where to begin.
I want to write about the fact that for some reason people treat blind children as though they are also deaf, but that's all there is to it. News flash, he can still hear you!
This is National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, both worthy of blog entries. I haven't been able to get more than a few lines into a poem recently, and I haven't got much to say about Autism that I haven't said before.
Today I am snowed it. I want to write but it's just not coming. So this is me writing about having nothing to write about.