Untitled on Life

(By Guest Author Lara)
Imagine, if you will, that you’re in my place for a minute. You’re sitting behind the store that your family owns and operates, which you hate. Your dad just got done yelling at you for something you didn’t even do. You have teachers breathing down your neck; you’re trying your damnedest to stay away from pot. And all of a sudden you realize that there are kids skateboarding in the alley right in front of you. You notice now that they’ve been there all day. You can hear them talk about Tony Hawk and how they are going to be just like him someday. Saying, “No, you do a manual like this!”

I walk down the small ramp, to get a better look at these kids. All of their friends are sharing three boards. This little girl looks at me, and asks if were in trouble. I say oh hell no, I was just watching you guys.

Damn, don’t you feel old right now?

I remember watching David the Gnome and Eureka’s Castle on Nick Jr. While drinking hot chocolate and trying to color inside of the lines.

Then I was really a big kid when I could ride around the block by myself.

Then the guys tried to teach me how to play basketball.

Eventually, I got really old, a freshman in high school. Sitting with my friends watching them play guitar while we down a case of Mountain Dew. Nothing was about sex, drugs, or politics. There were no ass-kickings to hand out for someone trying to nail your girlfriend. None of us ever dreamed of being arrested, or even doing something that would get us there. We were young. No worries.

Snap back to reality. Full of HDTV and a government who recently discovered how to read your subconscious speech. HBO used to be the only channel where you could see more skin than clothes. Now you turn on SOME broadcast channel that happens to rhyme with box, and you can see the same thing. Think for a minute, about then, then now. Even if you never touched any drugs or handcuffs. Things are still a whole lot more complicated than they once were. Did we make it that way? Are we doing this to ourselves? Or is the world really like this? It makes you wonder a bit.

On one hand, you can say that every teen or twenties something is overreacting. Wanting to blame everyone else for everything rather than themselves, or you could say that no, this is how it really is. Or, you could say, take a chill pill. Step back, breathe for a minute, those days aren’t so far-gone. Yeah sure, we can’t skate all day and have mom make us Ovaltine. We have jobs, families, school, and responsibilities. But I wonder, if there isn’t a part of us, that still is seven or ten years old.

Democrats and Republicans at each other’s throats. And debates that can get violent over other issues. People killing over religion and sexuality, race, national origin, and creed. People losing their lives to drugs, or a bullet, or both. When did we get like this?

Find a picture of yourself, when you were about seven. Look at it. Remember yourself then, did you ever think you were going to be who you were now. Did you get good grades, or were you popular. Now before you going “gee thanks Lara for the HUGE downer.” Hear me out; are you so sure that that person in the picture is dead? Are you so sure that your glory days are over? I don’t really think that that part of us ever dies. Who knows really? All I’m saying is that that person is still there. So take a breath, when you can. Remember that you used to be that person. And instead of getting all down and out because your not anymore, just be that person. The kid who shared his football, even though his neighbor was a geek. Maybe that’s what everyone needs or maybe, I’m full of shit.