Everybody acknowledges the 20, 30, 40 year olds, and infamous mid-life crises. They are like these scientific phenomenons analyzed by physcologists nad solved by various experts on magazines; prominent Newsseek, Teen and probably even Playboy. But nobody says anything about shocking crisis that nearly every high school student, particulary as you are enduring another vapid math lesson and you wonder, “When I’m 30 and stuck behind the counter at ICA, what the hell am I going to need the slope of a tangent for ?!?! (No offence Mr. Sjöberg)
It is like we are surrounded by this suffocant fog, more commonly known as ANXIETY. The fact that we hav been going through school like zombies – not learning a thing since discovering Magic Markers in Pre-K is becoming painfully clear. So in the fact that we probably lost ⅔ of our braincells with the breakfast (?!) that lies before us as we are “recovering” from a weekend we can’t quite recollect. They (these old, smelly, annoying slow people on bus 62) say that ther remember high school as the best time of their lives. To me it seem lucky if we remember it at all.
Every day we are reminded of how important it is to have a thorough education because of all the compition in the job market. Realizing that you are not competent to do anything, bur perhaps pack grocerybags or assort garbage, is really frightening. Well, maybe i am ecaggerating, we might all do OK. But the worst could be just that.
After all, most of us are going to accept that we are not going to be successful, famous, perfect people. Ther is only a small elite that reaches star status, rides in limos, affords Armani and chittchats with the Letterman. The rest of us will be ordinary “Svenssons”, with our suburban homes, Volvos and microwave meals. If we are lucky we will spend our hollidays on Mallorca at a Sunwing Resort. The point is, our only way of being seen, being famous, is revealing that you’ve secretly had a crush on your cousin for the pas 10 years, on the “Ricki Lake Show”.
Someday we will have to ler go of our dreams and confine to reality. Which is slaving to pay the rent, watching midless soaps on TV, and falling asleep tormented with a feeling of loss, or regret. You wake up the next day with the awarenessthat your life is one great, big missed upportunity.
We all want to belive that we wont end up like that. We are going to make a difference. Which is exactly what our parents said, and our grandparents and generations before them. Look at them now. Ther were you 30 years ago, and the are you 30 years from now.
I have never wanted it before, but I want it now more then anything:
-”Can’t we stop time?”