Visions of Teen hood

I found this post to be a little easier to relate to since I'm currently a teenager myself. One of the best movies to compare to Teen hood (and also one of my all time favorites) is called Sixteen Candles. This movie is about a young girl, and it is her sixteenth birthday. Unfortunately, her older sister's wedding is also on the same day. She wakes up in the morning, and couldn't be more thrilled to be one year older. It's her Sweet Sixteen!! Instead of walking downstairs and getting greeted by a chorus of "Happy Birthday", or maybe even a birthday pancake, she is completely ignored. Everyone is so absorbed into the chaos of the wedding they completely forget the date. She's traumatized. It's actually a few days before anyone besides her close friends remember it was her birthday at all. I think this is a great representation (in a comedy) of how tragic something can be in a teenager's eyes. Through the rest of the film she partakes in many other teen like events, such as prom, finding a boyfriend, and being dramatic as hell. The movie does a great job showing the drama in teenager's lives, and is also incredibly easy to relate to. I recommend it to everyone!

Visions of Childhood

Pick a TV show or movie that depicts childhood. What does it seem to be saying about the nature of being a kid? What "story" does it tell about childhood?

The movie I thought of when asked this question was "Hook" with Robin Williams. This is a story about a man who grows up, has children, and is married. While it seems he has a fine life, he has forgotten what it's like to be a child, and has also started forgetting about how important his family is. When he was a child, he used to pretend he was Peter Pan, and his fairy Tinkerbell comes to get him as an adult and takes him back to Never Never Land. It's here that Peter is reintroduced into childhood, and gains his imagination back again. I think this movie is trying to say that being a kid is precious, even though you always want to grow up. 

In the four stories we’ve read, how is childhood depicted? What similarities or differences are there? What are the authors saying about childhood? Do they get it “right?”

In the four stories that we've read so far about childhood, it seems as they are trying to depict childhood as a rough time. It's confusing, being in that state where you're young, but you know something is going wrong around you. In "Every Little Hurricane", the boy isn't naive. He knows exactly how hard it is living on a reservation, and he knows exactly how his entire family deals with it. He's surrounded by alcohol, depression, and poverty. In "With Love, For Esme", the little girl acts like an adult in dealing with her parent's deaths. I believe that the authors all presented childhood correctly. I agree completely with what they were trying to get across. 

Growing Up

One distinct memory I have of stepping out of childhood and into adulthood is when I was fairly old. It wasn't until sixth grade that I went through this traumatizing experience. I can remember clearly how the day was going. My parents and I were on our way out to dinner when I brought up the myth of Santa Clause. I jokingly said "It's not like Santa really puts the gifts under the tree, I know it's you guys." Even though I knew Santa was not real, I enjoyed the fact that my parents still played along. My dad replied laughing, "Alright, you caught us. We eat the cookies!". I was shocked that this fact had come out in the open. I was not laughing, and a little part of my heart was crushed. It was this day that the little part of me that was holding on to this family tradition grew up.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

Herrrohhhh. I'll start this off by saying I hate talking about myself. It either comes out incredibly boring, or sounds like I'm trying too hard to make it clever. So here it goes, whether dry and tasteless or dripping with entertainment.

Alyse Weber is sitting next to me. Jealous?

I love Dave Matthews. Anything else?

But for real, I love music. I'm not sure what I would do without it, as cliche as that sounds. I also love reading, and I'm a dedicated and proud fan of LOTR (if you don't know what that is, you should be ashamed) and Harry Potter. I'm graduating in January and I couldn't be more excited, and College Lit should be a coolio class! Boom.