Things sure have changed from when I was young.
I honeslty don’t remember even experiencing one quarter of the issues the youth of today has now. Some major examples include bullying, peanut allergies, self image issues, and feeling totally left out of any fun social activities which may have been going on. Wow. I had it good.
I remember as a very young kid just wanting to ride my bike and play in the woods, climbing trees with my best friends, and playing dolls in hiding. (That’s a whole other blog….lol). I also remember the trouble we got into by being hellyuns by throwing raw eggs on the electrical boxes outside to see if they would sizzle. If I remember correctly, they kinda did.
Innocuous enough stuff.
As I got older, I pretty much did the same stuff, just with a bigger bike and no eggs. Instead, we used to put real estate signs in peoples’ yards after collecting them from all the neighborhoods in the middle of the night. We also used to stand in groups on opposite sides of the street, pulling on an imaginary rope when cars came by so they would slow down. Unhook Christmas lights and wait for the homeowner to come out and yell as we scampered off in our dark clothes.
Punk stuff. But…still….kid stuff.
When I got to high school, it sure was a huge transition for me. My dad had just died, and we moved to a whole new city and school for me and my sister. My older sister had already moved on in college, and then lived in a neighboring city. Now that was hard, ain’t gonna lie. I had to start from scratch, as I had done so many times previously in my life as we travelled the globe with Dad being in the military.
But this was different. It was High School.
It was then I started noticing just how pretty other girls were, and how cute the boys who liked them were. And when a couple of those boys showed inklings of maybe just a little bit of liking me back, well…it was just a whole new feeling. Fun. Exciting. And sometimes heartbreaking.
But that was it.
It was in the school hallways, or at the football games, or parties at friends’ houses when you noticed. It was not 100% of all of the time right there at the fingertips to see what you were missing out on, or how cute Sylvia looked in those Levi 501 blues, with her long, lean legs and awesome long dark hair. Bronwyn was so cute, and I always thought that in French class. I heard her one day talking about a party she had gone to…one which I had not and wondered why…and then when class ended, well, that was it. I couldn’t stalk the latest Snap to find out who was there, if it was fun, who looked cute, and what everybody was wearing. When French was over, so were the thoughts of the party I didn’t attend.
Don’t get me wrong…I’m as connected as the next guy or gal. In fact, once I finish this blog, well….there it goes…up “there” somewhere. And I’ll probably post it to Facebook, because I would like to share my thoughts with. my friends…so I would be a hypocrite (which, in my opinion is the worst kind of people) if I denied the prowess and power of social media. I use it, peruse it and love it.
But sometimes it comes with a price tag.
We still have bikes. And there are still places to hang. In person, talking, communicating and giggling. 
And sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss.
jensumandthensome 