I'm about to divulge you all in some discussion about teenage poserhood, let me take a second to reflect. Whoa, final Mitchell blog post! It's been a good run dudes. As a man who has had the fortune of 4 straight Mitchell semesters, the books and discussion are always top notch, guaranteed. I mean, I'm pretty sure all the juniors here have already signed up for classes, but for those with the Mitch in their futures, expect greatness.
Now interrupting this Mitchell ad for some Blog Content! So this Friday, I was reminded of a Sag Harbor dynamic from my activities in real life. Namely, Senior Skip Day brought back the feelings of teen-identity-lameness so beautifully evoked in sections of Sag.
One theme of Benji's coming-of-age story is exploring the very mockable teenage transition years, where these pre-adults try to pick up older-seeming qualities in an effort to seem cool, and in general take themselves a bit too seriously in the process. Whitehead is constantly undermining his former self and buddies, whether it be their fretting over black vs. white sections of the beach, embarrassing hijinks with BB guns, or an ambiguously harmful hair touching incident from a racially-ambiguous man. Adolescence has plenty of Catch-22's, and these all encapsulate one of them. While trying to structure one's self before prior to adult life, there will be many lame moments of cluelessness and poserhood that only get worse to remember the older you get.
In Benji's lame encounters, they often hinge on adolescence's patented ambiguities. Is this division of the beach a palpable racial phenomenon or am I making such a mountain of a mole hill that my ancestors roll in their graves? Is playing with BB guns actually cool activity/grim foreshadowing, or just a pathetic accident? Was that hair-touching incident something I should be mad about, or just plain weirdness? Essentially, as your identity solidifies, there are unavoidable moments of utter triviality that you have to endure along the way.
Though this isn't a perfect analogy, Uni's latest Senior Skip Day is a pretty good example of teenage triviality. Us cool Seniors band together to SLACK and DEFY the UNI ADMINISTRATION in a BOLD MOVE where we SKIP ALL OF OUR CLASSES! Take that suckers! Pay no mind to the fact that we'll be OUT OF SCHOOL IN 4 MORE DAYS ANYWAY, and are JUST MAKING IT DIFFICULT on some of our TEACHERS on the HOME STRETCH so that we can SAY THAT WE DID IT, while HALF OF THE CLASS actually has to BE THERE ANYWAY!
But if you don't do it, you miss out on quality time with your buds, while all the teachers probably think you're a loser with no friends! That's certainly what skippers told me! Even complaining about it feels grimy, like uselessly skipping a few periods of school suddenly gives me a crucial moral dilemma. Obviously, the consequences of my misdeeds have jeopardized my chances at the Student of the-Kolodziej-Wilhelm-ScienceMatics Tobin Director's Q. Chicken Award! What have I done!
Anyway you look at it, its all pretty lame.
I hope those two separate examples of teenage lameness made sense next to each other. They definitely gave me a similar feeling. I felt like a Benji trying to decide what to do on Senior Skip Day. He'd fit pretty well as a Uni kid honestly.
Duuude youre getting into some deep dark territory here. Next thing you know we'll be saying nothing matters at all! Anything can be lame if you look at it the right way. "Wow she paid in cash ?" What is the purpose of currency anyways ? Lets get really deep into the inner workings of this stuff. I think the purpose of senior skip day is very surface level for a reason. If we thought about the emotional turmoil we would be inflicting on our peers and teachers, we would not have fun on our day. The point of it is to flex out on how dope it is to be a senior. But, I think this could be the point that you are making. BB guns are fun on the surface level until someone gets hurt. Senior skip is fun until Ray fails u in physics RIP.
ReplyDeletefirst off,
ReplyDeleteAHAHAHA POSERHOOD DUDE THAT IS GOLD AHAHAHHA "POSERHOOD" AW MAN AM I GONNA MISS YOU
secondly,
I had an exam so I couldn't skip so uh half of your blog post I can't relate to
thirdly (is that a word?),
I can totally relate to the other half. Namely, the "poserhood". To be fair, as teenagers we're just trying to figure out where we fit into society, and tbh we won't figure that out anytime soon but we try anyways. Now, I can give you the point of view as a loser who couldn't skip. Well actually I went to like one class then I had free periods then a final... so I guess I kinda skipped in a way but like not rlly.
BUT LET ME TELL YOU THE CHEM FINAL WAS ASS AHAHAHA OUR PROFESSOR WAS LIKE LOL GL BITCHES IM OUT
so yea... about sums things up. And yep WE OUT LETS GOOOOOOO bya
(Mitch keep on being awesome go kill 'em, 'em being... idk more like "slay"... wait is that still a thing I'm so behind the times WELL ANYWAYS keep doing you you're English class is top notch)
DeleteI agree Ethan, it is certainly all pretty lame.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog post, not only can I relate to your critique but it's amusing to look at what we're currently doing from a different lens, like older Ben looking back on younger Benji.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Benji would have all of these moral conflicts that we could discuss for days if he had a Uni senior skip day. Like what's the point of a skip day, like Ben says it's all about faking it. And he would notice it. It's not about making a statement to the administration it's a social standing thing.
ReplyDeleteSuper interesting comparison, after reading this I am starting to see similar parallels in my own life. Now that I think back I have done all sorts of stupid "rebellions" in my life that didn't really have a point. Well Written last blog, and congrats on the graduation. We will miss you man.
ReplyDeleteI think this blog post really highlights how in the moment many things seem like a great idea, but when looked back on sometime later seem pretty lame. Ben, the narrator, has much more distance from his younger self than I do from senior skip day. I still think it was pretty fun, but I'm sure it will seem lame some day.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's weird to think about everything we're doing now from Ben's lenses. I dunno, for me, senior skip day was a chance to hang out a whole day with the people I'm gonna miss. It was important because I haven't had a second to spare this week and I'm leaving for the whole summer the day after graduation. Thinking about that, I almost wish we'd gotten more nostalgia from Ben. I don't want to think everything I'm doing now, that seems significant to me, is dumb.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what we'll think when we look back on all this as adults. Will we see skipping as being stupid adolescents who thought they were so cool or will we see not skipping as just being lame over-worriers? It'll be really interesting to see how our opinions about our high school selves develop as time goes by!
ReplyDelete