God, it really sucks to be a teenager

Looking back on it now, I can't imagine how I survived it. No money, no job, no training, no skills, little hope of gainful employment, doing what you're told by mom and dad, hormones raging insatiably, hopelessly in love with every girl who comes along, trying to be cool and knowing you're not. UGH! How the hell did I live through that? I wouldn't wish it on a dog.

I'm 39 now, for whatever that's worth.

I didn't watch the video though since I'm on a slow connection.

full of possibility when you graduated and the day after you graduated it was....go to college..or get a job?

She said, "That was when someone else was paying the bills." Too fucking true.

Mom's can be excruciatingly direct at times, no?

Think of all the big movers in the 60s - Ram Dass, Jerry Rubin, Abby Hoffman, etc. etc. etc. - they were all being supported by rich parents.

Or the people who went off to India to live in Ashrams and study with Gurus - pretty much all of them were being supported by rich parents.

Yeah, it's easy to be spiritual when someone else is paying the bills.

for not killing me for the things I did when I was a teenager. I have 2 of my own now. I think I'm turning into my Dad. I hear his voice coming out of my mouth all the time. I tried so hard to forget those horrible years that I have a hard time remembering now so that I can empathize with them.

I couldn't believe I had just said that. It was stunning.

time and food and booze the other 10%. I harken back to those days!

"Drugs are a crutch for people who can't handle reality." That was me, all right.

It's just not fair that teens get to have great bodies and so little brains about life.

So true!

Wilde probably said it too, but maybe verbed differently.

I know "It's a Wonderful Life" was one of Oscar Wilde's favourite movies. ;)

Imagine being a horny but ugly teenager during the disco years. :-)

turn 20 in october. it hasnt been bad for me, except the dating, or lack thereof

a few weeks ago I had lunch with a couple of kids I went to high school with (thirty some years ago) who were the coolest kids I knew. They both talked about how they thought they were the biggest losers in school and one of them laughed and said she had always thought I was the "cool kid". Kind of opened my eyes, many years later. We were all just insecure and feeling our way around. Nope, wouldn't want to go back. Well, maybe for a day or two, but I'll pick the day!

The years were everything you mentioned, plus I was a total geek nerd loser (in the eyes of the other kids at school), and my dad was an alcoholic shitbag, but overall, you know, I really enjoyed my teenage years and sometimes wish for the sense of fun and adventure and wide-eyed enjoyment of the world I had back then.

I still prefer who and what I am today, and what I do now, and etc., but, as sadly miserable as some aspects of my teen years were, they were still some pretty cool years.

I was born with an immunity to peer pressure.

those wild times, all the madness, the passion, the drama, the dreams.

seems as if there was so much more freedom. teenagers weren't arrested for trying their hand at creative writing (like the kid in--kentucky?--who was busted for being a terrorist because he wrote a story about zombies at his high school), i don't recall my friends being busted for art projects, driving before you got your license didn't mean you'd lose the license privilege until you were 18 or 21 (i had my own car & was driving when i was 15), sex did not equate a possible death sentence, the war was winding down, disco was gearing up, and "disco sucks" was counter-attacking. and illinois still had jack-in-the-box super tacos!

sometimes i pine for those days--and the super tacos!

My folks were divorced, and very hands-off. I did whatever I wanted, and wasted a lot of precious time. One plus of that is that nothing was really all that verboten, so it took away a lot of the desire to rebel.

Seems like a lot of people who got addicted to drugs, alcohol or compulsive/negative sex behavior had very strict parents who told them they were to NEVER, EVER do such things.

Blah, blah blah - I've actually started to bore myself. Never mind.

Anyway, I wouldn't want to be a teen again, but I'd love to go back to about 24 or 25. What a perfect age to be.

I lived in a backwoods town, never had any money, got into fights every day at school and didn't get along with my teachers.