3.9

[I met Lyssa today. So not a creeper anymore. Also, I should be doing homework or something else productive. Instead, you guys get this.]

[Second side note: I got a clock from the education department to remind me to be a good student, and now I can hear time passing. I hate it, so I play music. Practical upshot of the whole debacle: more music in the room.].

There is something about high schoolers that is altogether invigorating. The guys haven't yet learned to be timid around girls. The girls haven't yet learned how to talk to boys. The social machinations are incredibly disturbing, and yet so new and foreign as to almost be pleasing. They don't say "How was your day?" "Oh, fine, you know." "Oh, yes. Have a great day!" "Thanks, you too!" They talk about the things they enjoy, and they shun topics and people they don't like. Life in high school is entirely too short to waste being polite.

American society has lost a lot of momentum due to our educational system. In the Little House on the Prairie series, Laura grows up quickly to be a pillar in the blowing grass. The same goes for Antonia in My Antonia. Other books like these and Call of the Wild and Huck Finn tell of young people making adult decisions in their teens, if not earlier. Back then, people didn't have years to slowly evolve and grow and decide who they are. In grade school, all the students get to act like kids. In high school, the students get to try out their new adult bodies with kid minds. In college, they have to try their new adult minds to go with their bodies. And finally, when they graduate, they get to decide whether or not they're done germinating, or if they should go to grad school.

This is a moratorium.

This is a pause.

This is a hesitation.

This is a sacrilege.

And yet it is so interesting to watch.