Friday, September 15, 2006

On Being Burned, And Living Through It: Have a Little Faith.

High School is about making mistakes...

It's about deciding to sluff class and feeling the reprocussions later.
It's about going out with guys that ones parents might not approve of.
It's about testing out new possibilities, limits and boundaries.

In my years of High School I've done all of these things...each having drastic consequences to my social and emotional state. both postitive and negative. Yes, I dated Chase Brown. He's kind of a jack-ass, but he's a jack-ass that I care a great deal about... and I still consider him a friend.

Yes, I sluffed classes my junior year. This decision in hindsight was both stupid and enlightening. Stupid because now I have to make up a term of Honors English before I can graduate, Enlightening because I've learned just how amazing a single human can be when put under severe amounts of pressure, and that my friends are the funniest most intelligent people I've ever met.

I have been burned pretty bad when it comes to the relationsips portion of my adolescent years... but whenever I start to feel bad for myself I just take a minute and think objectively about my entire situation (a trick that I learned while sluffing class by the way), and I realise that it's not so bad, in comparison to others' experiences it was actually pretty smooth sailing.

So please, parents... before you condemn a child for a wrong decision, remember your own High School years, when you made dumb decisions and got hurt. Remember how much you learned from that experience, and think about how it's made you the person you are today... We love you. We really do, we just need a little freedom to do what we're supposed to do, and that is to stumble along the path to enlightenment.

The little boy looked deeply into the flames of the fire before him, his mother's words repeating in his mind, "Don't touch the fire, you'll be burned..." He believed his mother of course, but there was just something so intriguing about the way the flames licked desperately at the air, stuggling to escape the confines of it's own fiery existance... It made you want to reach out, just once... "Don't touch the fire, you'll be burned...."

But sometimes we have to feel the burn for ourselves.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is an incredible piece, Jess. It's important we do not forget the past altogether as it puts us in good stead for the future. Beleiev me, I've done my share of screw-ups but the most important thing is to be able to get up, move on and learn.

We'll still stumble along the way but hey, at least we'll know better ;-)

HUGS!!

thesexyswede said...

exactly lx...exactly.

Elle said...

Oh boy highschool ! Hell on earth but I always say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Girl you've got a wicked smart brain on your shoulder and you write so well. keep it up.
ps:THAT was beautyful.

that lisa girl said...

I wish my parents would understand all that you just said, all that I want to tell them, all that I try to say... but they can't even listen...

thesexyswede said...

I love you Lisa.