Monday, December 02, 2002

I Live With a Thousand Teenagers


Yes, it really is a picture of bunnies at school.

Cars have been unloading boxes outside all day. Down the hallway doors slam where, yesterday, silence reigned. The new kid down the hall actually brought two turntables and a microphone -- there's no room left on his desk for his computer -- and he's testing them out now to make sure the connections are okay. I could help, but why encourage him?

The kids are back.

Living in a community where the majority of people are under the age of 20 makes me feel like old and creepy sometimes, like Carson Daly at MTV's Spring Break [okay, so he's a year younger than I am -- even so]. But sometimes I thank G-d that I'm still here after 5 years. On the one hand, I get to be young forever, with young friends and their new and often naive ideas constantly on the edge of my peripheral vision. On the other hand, no matter how much I watch what they watch, eat what they eat, and blog what they blog, I'm constantly confronted by the ever-yawing gap between what I know of the world and what they live out every day. Boarding school is both timeless and ancient, simultaneously young and historic; although the space we inhabit and the constant influx of new bodies and minds are essentially rejuvenating, after too long, I think we all begin to take on the mossy chestnut past of the traditions we are steeped in, the ancient brick and tall pines around us.

I could talk about this for hours, but my students say I overanalyze things. As if analysis weren't what I did for a living; as if knowing the world was such a bad thing. Ah, youth. Six weeks 'till I turn thirty.

posted by boyhowdy | 8:39 PM |

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