Prom

I read a story recently about high school prom and the big productions guys are now putting on just to ask some girl to prom.

For the first time I’m really afraid for my boy.

 

Granted, prom’s a big deal for a high school kid.  But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not THAT big of a deal.  Both me and my wife went to prom with people we didn’t really like.  We both had a grand time, but in retrospect would have rather gone with each other—had we known each other at the time.  And neither one of us has talked to our prom date in nearly a decade.

 

But this story was suggesting that the boys are making the big productions because it’s what the girls want—spurred on by (of course) the media and MTV’s Laguna Beach (I’m so out of touch with pop culture today that I have no idea what that even is).  Honest to God quote “Some guys are so retarded…  they still ask over the phone.  That’s lame.”  Excuse me?  So it isn’t written in the sky… who do you think you are?  Is your shit made out of marshmallows?  Perspective would be appreciated.  There are boys who get so absolutely nervous that they get so tongue tied that they can’t speak to the girl they know likes them.  It’s just a dance, son.  Ask her, she wants to be asked and treated and respected like a person. 

There are the girls that get so anxious that they panic and ask some other guy than the one they like.  How stupid is that?  You like boy 1, so you ask boy 2.  Um… that doesn’t accomplish anything.  Somewhere, somehow, and to some people, that makes perfect sense.  Not to me.  I don’t get girls at all.

There is so very much to get on the soapbox about with this.  There’s something to say about the culture of youth-worship where the best years of your life happen before you turn 20.  That’s not true, not in the least.

There’s something to say about socialization—or lack thereof.  How is it that you can’t speak to someone you eat lunch with every day?  How is it that you can’t look at the person you like and say “I like you, you’re good people”?

There’s something to say about heightened expectations beyond realistic borders.  A limo will not show up to collect you (and should not show up) when you are merely a child.

There’s so much to say about the mixed signals of what we expect from the youth today and the stimuli that we provide.  The inputs do not equal the expected outputs.  We put in garbage and expect gold, and things just don’t work that way.

There’s so much to say.  So many symptoms of a general and pervasive societal sickness.  There’s so much to say, and so few who will listen.

 

I can’t change the world.  I can change my little corner of it, though.

 

The best years are ahead of you.  There is no such thing as the “good old days”.  Today is the day and it is only a shadow of what tomorrow holds.  Tomorrow holds the one thing that yesterday can never have—hope.  Yesterday is done and gone.  Today is a product of yesterday.  But tomorrow is not yet revealed.  Tomorrow has promise.  Tomorrow not only has the chance, but the promise of being better than a thousand yesterdays combined.  Most importantly, you can shape tomorrow, but only if you look towards it.  You live in today, but you live for tomorrow.  But there are so many symptoms that suggest people are living for today with their eyes cast toward yesterday rather than living in today with their eyes cast toward all of the wonderful and fantastic tomorrows yet to come.

 

It’s sad that hope is dying in today’s youth.  It’s very sad indeed.  It’s even sadder that we’re killing that hope day by day, one stone at a time.