whats wrong with us anyways?
All right... so I haven’t posted in a while and I’m sorry to the 4 people who read this blog, because I love you for reading it. I watched the movie blood diamond last night, it was really good, it was one of the few and far between movies that reminded me that there are still a few useful people in Hollywood. Anyways apart from curbing any desire I ever had for anything with diamonds, it also solidified my ideas on the fact that engagement rings are just another gimmick that we are dragged into spending zillions on each year. What does a diamond say? Even if there's 100 carats sitting on your finger... that is no official determination of love or meaning in the end. In fact if one finds themselves with such a ring they might want to question the motives behind it.
If people are truly in love why do they need a 2-carat ring to prove it? Yeah... I don’t really know either. Why not save the cash and put it down on a house, hell, why not go on a two-month trip to Europe for your honeymoon?? Seriously what does a ring say to everyone else? It’s a status symbol like a car or a purse or whatever the hell we define each other with. I don’t want to be another person buying into it all. I mean its nice if you can afford it and if you have already bought your fiancé a nice ring good on you, but they are not as rare as they are said to be and they are no where near the worth they are sold at. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s a big huge waste of cash!
Oh, my other beef is TV shows these days. I had never seen the TV show one tree hill before, and on Tuesday night I went over to a friends and turns out they were having a one tree hill marathon. Well, I started to watch the show that I assumed was about university age students. Suddenly they are in a high school, what?!? They are in grade 11... hold the phone, they are like 27 year olds! they all look older than me that’s for sure, and I’ve been out of high school for a while. So I keep watching and in the first scene there is a popular rich skinny girl going on and on in the middle of bio class about how horny she is and how she needs to get plowed… well she didn’t say plowed but she did say she was horny and needed to get laid. What are we teaching these kids? For crying out loud I barely knew what a blowjob was back then, well that’s not entirely true.
The point is that the whole show was glamorizing sexual relationships between teenagers not to mention massive amounts of underage drinking and consumerism. And do you think any of them will ever get knocked up and have to drop out of school I highly doubt it, or what about an std? and where are their parents in the whole thing. im sure i sound so old fashioned right now, but sometimes i wonder if its a good idea to expose kids who barely know how to make their own oppinions and ideas to so much crap! What about the other two “grade eleven” students who divorced themselves from their parents so that they could get married? They had an apartment nicer than almost every newly wed couple I have ever met, and they were in grade 11 going to school and working part time jobs to make their rent. I’m sorry that total bullshit. Two 17 year olds leading completely independent lives? Just flying through life managing payments, rent, school, jobs, playing team sports after school and then finally majorly parting on the weekends? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it is not just virtually impossible, it is impossible. No wonder half the kids I meet volunteering with youth groups are so clueless about life. They are fed these bull shit you can have everything with out working for it lies… okay, i know not every kid is stupid enough to buy into it. i didnt buy into it right? well that might not have been so true, if i had cable in highschool who knows what would have happend to me! This Is probably getting really long and you probably aren't even reading it anymore. So, sorry I ranted for so long. It just pissed me off that people could market something so of the wall to teens and that they are willing to buy it. The end!
If people are truly in love why do they need a 2-carat ring to prove it? Yeah... I don’t really know either. Why not save the cash and put it down on a house, hell, why not go on a two-month trip to Europe for your honeymoon?? Seriously what does a ring say to everyone else? It’s a status symbol like a car or a purse or whatever the hell we define each other with. I don’t want to be another person buying into it all. I mean its nice if you can afford it and if you have already bought your fiancé a nice ring good on you, but they are not as rare as they are said to be and they are no where near the worth they are sold at. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s a big huge waste of cash!
Oh, my other beef is TV shows these days. I had never seen the TV show one tree hill before, and on Tuesday night I went over to a friends and turns out they were having a one tree hill marathon. Well, I started to watch the show that I assumed was about university age students. Suddenly they are in a high school, what?!? They are in grade 11... hold the phone, they are like 27 year olds! they all look older than me that’s for sure, and I’ve been out of high school for a while. So I keep watching and in the first scene there is a popular rich skinny girl going on and on in the middle of bio class about how horny she is and how she needs to get plowed… well she didn’t say plowed but she did say she was horny and needed to get laid. What are we teaching these kids? For crying out loud I barely knew what a blowjob was back then, well that’s not entirely true.
The point is that the whole show was glamorizing sexual relationships between teenagers not to mention massive amounts of underage drinking and consumerism. And do you think any of them will ever get knocked up and have to drop out of school I highly doubt it, or what about an std? and where are their parents in the whole thing. im sure i sound so old fashioned right now, but sometimes i wonder if its a good idea to expose kids who barely know how to make their own oppinions and ideas to so much crap! What about the other two “grade eleven” students who divorced themselves from their parents so that they could get married? They had an apartment nicer than almost every newly wed couple I have ever met, and they were in grade 11 going to school and working part time jobs to make their rent. I’m sorry that total bullshit. Two 17 year olds leading completely independent lives? Just flying through life managing payments, rent, school, jobs, playing team sports after school and then finally majorly parting on the weekends? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it is not just virtually impossible, it is impossible. No wonder half the kids I meet volunteering with youth groups are so clueless about life. They are fed these bull shit you can have everything with out working for it lies… okay, i know not every kid is stupid enough to buy into it. i didnt buy into it right? well that might not have been so true, if i had cable in highschool who knows what would have happend to me! This Is probably getting really long and you probably aren't even reading it anymore. So, sorry I ranted for so long. It just pissed me off that people could market something so of the wall to teens and that they are willing to buy it. The end!
posted by good girls finish first at 3:30 p.m.
10 Comments:
It seems I am constantly reminded of why I appreciate you so much, Vanessa. First off, I'm sure you saw my blog post (http://keira-annemellis.blogspot.com/2006/11/all-is-fair-in-love-and-were-in-love.html) on marriage, so you probably have a pretty good idea of how I feel about engagement and wedding rings. I don't think what they look like or what they contain are what's important. When I was younger, I always thought I'd want a say in the kind of engagement ring that my fiance would one day buy me, but I've realized that doing so completely defeats the purpose. The ring is supposed to be symbolic of the commitment being made and the covenant shared between the two. If I am ever to receive an engagement ring, I want my fiance to pick out a ring that he feels best expresses how he feels about me and about our relationship. As for diamonds in particular, I haven't yet seen "The Blood Diamond" but it's something I definitely want to check out and I'm sure that upon doing so, I'll be sharing your sentiments.
However, on a related side note, while doing some Christmas shopping in Yaletown a couple weeks ago I walked by a Native art gallery and noticed a sign in the window that said they make custom carved wedding and engagement rings out of silver and/or gold. That got me a little bit giddy, being an Island girl and all.
I've never seen, nor do I ever want to see, One Tree Hill. Like you, I knew very little of sex in high school, let alone was I having it. Shows like that baffle me, even though I am completely guilty of watching the OC. However, at least the OC shows both the negative and positive sides of sex, underage drinking, drug abuse, etc. and they don't always glamourize it. It ain't always pretty.
yeah totaly i've fallen to the temptation of the o.c. once or twice ha ha ha... but no seriously, i wiatressed and i know how many of the 15 year old seater greaters we employed were haveing sex and that shocked me enough... it was only when i watched a show like one tree hill did i realize that they did not fully unerstand the possible impact of their desisions... i mean whatever at a certain point its like we are all grown up and can make our own desissions but i know that when i was 15 i couldnt... hell when i was 17 i couldnt... who knows what to think... ha ha ha... and thats really really rad about the carved rings thing... thats what i mean... things can mean more than alot of money...
What you’ve said about One Tree Hill reminds me of this thought that I’ve had about growing up for years now.
When we are young, there’s always this rush to grow up. When you’re really young, you want to be doing what the adults are doing; you want to be and act older than you are: Pretending to be a daddy or a mommy, working at their jobs, wanting to do the older person things that they won’t let you do because it’s for “adults”.
Now I know part of it is just natural development, establishing an understanding of roles and gender socialization and what not but I think it is also representative of a greater cultural ideal that is marketed towards everyone, even to children. The ideal life is to be in your early-mid twenties, living extravagant, materialistic lives, doing basically whatever the hell you want with your excess of wealth in good ole’ prosperous North America.
I think it’s part of the reason why you have teens out partying and having sex so early… because they view it as part of establishing their “adultness” (that’s what adults do, they get to have sex) and thus (supposedly) grant them a greater feeling of importance and maturity in society…which is terribly tragic. On the other hand, it also explains why you have middle aged men and women desperately trying to be, look and act younger… and when I mean middle aged I mean like 30-40’s… not really even middle aged… The message is: You just got to be young and hip all the time. Life will never be fun unless you’re spending money in a way that everyone else can see it.
That’s why you have 27 years olds playing 17 year olds and 17 year old married and living in an apt. together. To the young, older is better and to the “old”, your best years are behind you.
sadly true? i know the rest of the world thinks so... but im looking forward to constantly learning and growing and being more than i am now... i look forward to gaining an understanding of life that surpasses that which i hold now and i look forward to gaining a grace that only comes with age and experiance. maybe i've just got it wrong ha ha ha but i happen to embrace the idea of embraceing all parts of my life journy. life journy? i sound like such an effing hippy...
I think you've got the right attitude. I mean, it's good to be looking with hope to the future and to growing... but just don't forget to enjoy to the fullest where you are now in your "life journey". If you live constantly looking to the future, you'll never be able to fully enjoy the now.
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Wow...I'm loving all this discussion. I love it when blog posts spark conversation. I've never understood the mentality behind young'uns feeling the need to be in their 20s. For some reason, being in your 20s symbolizes what "everyone" (I'm generalizing about the general public here) feels is important in life. There's a carefree lifestyle, money to be spent, cocktails to be consumed and no one has to figure out their career yet. I won't lie and say that in the first year and a half that I lived in Vancouver, I was falling prey to the materialistic draw of the metropolitan lifestyle. I thought it was fulfilling to have cute handbags and wearing the clothes that everyone else on Robson was wearing.
Let me just say that I am so grateful for the realizations I came to concerning all of this. I can even pinpoint the moment because it was like a slap in the face. What I've realized is that it's of utmost importance to stay connected to your roots and your family and to really embrace the idea of "keeping it real." There's something to be treasured and cherished in every phase of life. True, I am totally happy at this phase in my 20s and how I have no one but myself to be accountable to right now. That's not to say I'm not looking forward to my 30s and what that phase will hold, what my 40s will hold, what it will be like to be a grandmother who helps her grandkids bake cookies. There's so much about every phase of life that's important and unique and not something you can rush into or rush out of.
That being said, underage drinking just pisses me off. Not only does it look completely pathetic, kids that are underage don't know how to drink. I know of someone who, as a teen, mixed a 1/3 bottle of vodka with red wine. Most of the time, their goal is to just get drunk by any means and it's really, really ridiculous.
the vodka story is more reminicent of the girls i usto waitress with unfortunately than my highschool days ha ha ha... but yeah im with you there it is a little but silly to be drinking soo much when your a minor and what most kids forget to take into consideration is that when you get toasted you've basicly just consumed enough toxic substance for your body to start malfunctioning ha ha ha... mmmm such a good idea... lets do it every weekend and if we can get away with it lets do it on school nights too!! ha ha ha... what can you really say though? they know best right?;)
Let's drink vodka and red wine. Oh wait, let's not. But when you're out here, we're so going for Stella and Wings. Austin loves it - he knows what I'm sayin'.
You thought I was correcting your thinking, but I was actually agreeing with you. I did start my comment with "I think you've got the right attitude." you know...
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