Overbearing Finger

C.P. – f.17

The Overbearing Finger

It seems that parents don’t know how to just let go and let their children be independent and trust that they will do the right thing. Hello?!? Do you not think you did a good job raising us or what? We aren’t stupid we know right from wrong, yes our youthful minds may slip up a time or two, but that doesn’t mean we are a horrible child it just means that we’re teens. I have found that parents think that if they keep a tight hold and an all too watchful eye on their child the parents believe the kids are less likely to make mistakes. Parents think that monitoring our myspace, facebook, text messages, and phone calls will help you see what we’re up to. What do parents think reading our messages is accomplishing? Do you think you will catch something before it happens? Or better understand the life we aren’t telling you about? Maybe you need to talk to us more and figure out what is going on in our life instead of snooping around. As shocking as it may seem, teenagers can be trustworthy. In fact we want you to trust us. Overbearing parents go with the “you can earn my trust” line that is how it should work with us. Not trusting us in hard and agrivating for us. Trust can be the difference between going out and staying in on a Friday night. So until we do something to break your trust don’t treat us like we’re convicted prisoners constantly being monitored. If you do have honest suspicions about your kid don’t go prying, confront us and ask point blank. I can understand that as parents you just want to look at our websites or things once and a while but looking at them on a daily basis isn’t checking up on us it is controlling. In the end the tight, strangling hold on your children only pushes us away so parents need to find the balance. Give us some freedom and loosen up the hold you might just be surprised.

I’ve never understood…

A.N. (f.17 ) I’ve never understood the fascination with Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight.

I remember my sophomore year, and my friends were sitting around the lunch table reading this book with a hand holding an apple on the front. When I sat down, they began to discuss it. And sadly, there isn’t much to discuss. So basically, all I heard was about how handsome a fictional character named Edward was and how much Bella should change into a vampire to be with him.

Well, this set off red flags for me right away. And before I critique something, I always make sure I know everything about it. My biggest regret? Actually purchasing the book for eleven dollars. It was not worth eleven dollars.

I finished the book in a day. Not only was it the easiest read I had ever flipped through, but it was menial and dull. The main character, Isabella Swan, is two dimensional and flat, a perfect place for angst ridden adolescent girls to project themselves and their emotions, hence the book’s popularity among aforementioned group.

With this novel taking over the interests of my peers, one would expect it to at least project a good message. Unfortunately this is not the case. As the novels read on, the seconds almost condones rape, where main character Bella’s best friend Jacob forces himself on her, and Bella later wonders if she enjoyed the forced kiss. Also, Edward, the ‘love’ interest, has a striking resemblance of a creepy stalker. He follows her around and waits in her room, unseen, at night.
Some teenage girls argue that this is a good example of what love can overcome. But this is another misconstrued idea. The example of what Bella and Edward experience is not love, but an adequate example of teenage lust and hormones. Love isn’t as simple as two people meeting in Biology class and suddenly deciding they love each other. But Bella is convinced that she loves Edward, and wants to give herself to him, in yes, the way we are all thinking. Edward won’t have her, but this is not the message we want girls to get from the book. Just because he says he loves you doesn’t mean you have to give him everything.

And that is what this whole novel circulates around. Its roughly over 1000 pages of foreplay between two seventeen year old teenagers. Completely pointless to read, and should not be allowed to be chosen in classrooms as a choice of literary merit. It offers nothing compelling and can be rightly pegged as a ‘beach read’. However, it should be left on the beach. Hopefully none of the generation reading it mirrors the ideas presented, because we don’t need any more poor decision making. I’ve seen enough of it.

New Blog Coming Soon!!

Rick Zapf:

As I talk to adults over the years, I have come to realize just how much they have lost touch with the teenage years since they were once a teenager. Yes, times have changed, but also much has remained the same. In the coming months you will begin to read and understand what makes a teenager today. It comes unedited — often straight from their heart! On these pages it will be what they think, they feel, they want, or desire. It is a chance for others to commiserate with their tears and sadness and cheer for their triumphs and acheivements. All teens are anonymous yet follow these teens and their pens names throughout this school year and beyond. They are here to help you! And maybe in the end you will understand how to talk to your teen. So as we start, I ask for your continued support and prayers that this blog will help.

http://www.z1publications.com/