Teenage Pastimes

            Many parents and adults all say the same thing when it comes to their kids or just children in general.  It goes something like this, “My, my, my they seem to grow up fast!”  Some important and memorable times this expression is used would be: a baby’s first steps, first day of kindergarten, the child’s first “love”, fourth grade camp, sixth grade camp, graduation from elementary school.  The list goes on and on.  I stopped at graduation from sixth grade for a reason.  For the most part, at the end of students sixth grade year they are eleven or twelve years old.  This is the period of time called the preteen age.  Kids start maturing and at this point, they begin to rapidly evolve into adults.  This great change is noticed especially through the teenage pastimes. 

            The best word I can find to describe the teenage years is independence.  This important word is what all teenagers long for.  At first most parents insist that their kids stay at home with their friends instead of roaming around aimlessly in the neighborhood.  This request by parents is very reasonable considering the threat of kidnappers and drunk drivers.  This is unfortunate for the kids though.  Kids don’t want to talk in ears reach of parents.  After all teenage years are when secrets and gossip become important.  Sally wants to tell Suzy about her new “crush” but of course her parents cannot hear about it.  Therefore this is when 13 year olds will transition from playing with dolls in the house to going outside where there is less chance of being overheard.

            Now we reach the ages of fourteen and fifteen.  Parents seem to understand that their kids want to either be left alone or for their parents to “fit in”.  So most parents will be more respectful about privacy but also will make themselves more teenage friendly.  One example of that is changing their language around us.  For instance, my best friend and I would always say the phrase, “Ya schmell me?” when asking if they understood.  Noticing that his parents started to say that to us and it made him and me more comfortable around them. So now that the house was teenage friendly, more teenage activities took place back inside the house.  We would play “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Two”, and “NASCAR” and all sorts of entertaining games.  I can even recall playing board games with my friends parents, a strange concept now that I am sixteen.

            When I was fifteen, my friends and I got tired of the indoors so we headed outside.  We were doing things that our fathers had done “back in the good ole’ days”.  We would play everything from basketball to two-hand touch street football.  One of our favorite basketball games was knockout, but we also enjoyed a good game or HORSE or just shooting some hoops.  Basketball  one on one games were not very popular amongst us because we were usually a group of three and that never turned out well.  I can remember late night football games with my three good friends during winter.  The flood light on the driveway, illuminating the shrunken asphalt field and making tall shadows out of us.  We would play for multiple games and mostly until we would get called in by our friend’s mom.  Then inside we would resort back to talking which was never a favorite of ours.  We always wanted to be doing something.

            Other than thirteen, which is the first year of being a teenager, sixteen is the first looked up to year in a child’s life.  Why?  Well in California, that is, sixteen is the legal age to acquire a Drivers License.  And boy how life changes.  This roughly 2 X 4 inch card changes everything.  For one, there is a new acceptable place to talk, the car.  And back to outside stuff goes the teens.  There is no reason to stay at my house anymore if I can drive anywhere I want.  That is the thinking of most 16 year old drivers.  At first, parents and teens have a somewhat mutual agreement that they will inform of what and where they are going.  But after awhile, kids realize that the parents have no way of actually knowing.  So now, more than ever independence was a reality.  I think one of the most important thing cars did was expand the groups of friends.  That could be the result of getting older, but cars gave an opportunity to go to central locations: parks, restaurants or stores.  And this allows the teen to go at his or her leisure and time schedule.  Now instead of some friends hanging out, there are parties instead.  Because during this time, the thinking is that the more people here the more opportunity for fun is at hand.

            Although junior year of high school is stressful and at times there can be a lot of homework.  We still find time to maintain a social life and to have fun.  Usually this will take place on the weekends, because no one has time during the week.  If there isn’t a huge history packet due, then there is daily math homework or a blog for English.  The school work supply is endless. But I like many other teens my age, take time off of homework on Saturday and just hang out with friends or maybe get to a party.  The effect of this day of fun, results in a Sunday jammed with lots of weekend assignments to complete.  Nevertheless, a week is not complete without at least one single day of fun.  Sometimes it will just be with a group of two people and yet others my Saturday will be playing mud football with a big group of people.

            As I am only a sixteen year old boy, I still have three more years of a teenage life.  During that three years will be senior year, graduation from high school and the start of college.  I know that my life will change in those three years, party from other people’s experiences and also from the fact that every year brings new changes in activities.

Abstract Term: Strength

            As a teenager strength is mostly determined as who has the most power, i.e. muscles.  Who has the biggest muscles?  Who benches the most weight?  These seem to be the things people in today’s society care about.  This kind of strength is determined by forever changing things.  This kind of strength is not forever.  This kind of strength weakens with time.  No one can be the strongest forever.  Everyone will die eventually and everyone knows that dead people cannot hold or attain strength.  It is a sad thought really, that strength is limited and cannot last forever, because lets face it, everyone wants to be strong and known.

            In cartoons I always thought it was ironic that the strongest man, the superhero, had a sidekick.  What was the sidekick for?  To me I always found it silly to have someone by your side if you are the strongest.  Although there is strength in numbers, the numbers weaken individual strength.  If, for example, a group of men win a group fighting match, then the group is recognized at being strong but there is no individual power given to a single person.  Recognition is key while speaking about power because being known is being strong.

            The ancient Romans used to recognize strength.  The strongest men would be the leader.  In the paintings, the gods always have big toned muscles.  Being strong and showing the strength was a very important part of their culture because it was the strong who would survive.  The strongest were also the champions.  In the Olympics, the champions were determined by strength.  The discus throwers were very powerful and it showed great strength to be champion.

            Now-a-days strength is still assumed as the most muscles but it also is about amount of power.  For example, the president of the United States of America is one of the most powerful men in the world.  He is basically in charge of a world power country, yet he is not portrayed as having great big muscles.  No, he holds his power in his decisions and words.  Strength in muscles is, to some extent, not very strong at all.  There is another saying that goes, “there will always be someone stronger” and that is true.  No matter how strong you are, you are not invincible. 

           

            When I was in 8^th grade Physical Education, I remember my class went into the weight room for the first time.  All the guys were excited about getting strong.  When Mr. Miller was trying to explain how to use the equipment the boys were fiddling around with the weights, being so excited to get started.  And then there were the girls.  The girls could really care less about getting “ripped” as us boys called it back then.  The girls just wanted to sit down and gossip about “who likes who” and “OMG I think he likes me”.  This always caught my attention and it was then when I really got an understanding of characteristics of males and females.  Although there are a growing number of females striving for power, it is the men who are based on strength.  They have a competitive nature that defines their status. 

            Once I moved on from middle school and finally made it to high school, a new type of strength came about.  And that was the strength of perseverance.  As a freshman I thought that high school was going to be hard and I admired the upper class men and thought that they were so strong for passing the classes.  Although I later found out that high school was very easy, it still does not take away from the strength that one has to persevere and to keep moving.  I will admit that there were some tough challenges I faced in high school and I had to build up strength to get past them all.

            Being strong makes you a big target.  Whenever there is a wrestling or boxing match on TV, the most important and popular ones are the ones where someone is trying to defend a title.  In baseball, the defending World Champions are always the team to beat.  Because beating the best team or person, makes you the best.  Although that is not always the case, the title of strength is much greater than the actual reality of it.  As I said before, there is always someone greater than you who will want to take you down and thus thrusting yourself into the position of strongest man in the world.

            Although strength is mainly associated with men there are a lot of examples of very strong women.  First off the athletes like Misty May-Treanor and Venus Williams are strong, as in muscular women athletes.  Misty May-Treanor was a gold metal winner at the 2008 Summer Olympics and Venus Williams is an internationally known tennis player who has also won many championships.  On the other hand there are women like Hillary Clinton and Meg Whitman who have become very strong leaders.  Hillary Clinton is now the Secretary of State under the Obama Administration. She has been very influential throughout the world and has supported many causes like the Haitian Earthquake back in 2010.  Meg Whitman is currently the president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and ex CEO of eBay.  She also ran for Governor of California but lost. 

            I mentioned various types of strength throughout this blog.  It is a very interesting concept that can be examined to different meanings.  I think a big part of strength is determined by ones character.  Some people want power and to be strong and yet others are more passive and know that they don’t have a chance at being strong and they just watch other people became the best and just like that fall back down and get beaten.  These people that watch catch on the strength is limited and they spend time on more stable things.  Whatever strength is defined as, all forms have one thing in common, it will not last forever.