Aftermath

Being a teenager is all about looking back. It's always funny when older people ask how old you are and say "you're too young to have gone through anything." Listen here geezer, you may be older than Methusaleh, ancient like the mummy in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and not as good looking as the "Originals" in the Vampire Diaries, but you don't know my life. It's been a long school year, that's for sure but it's finally over. Now you have to deal with the aftermath.

One of the things that gets blurred in college is the concept of friendship. People think that saying "hey, how are you" in passing equals some sort of friendship. Face the facts, that's nothing more than a mere acquaintance. Someone you barely know anything about, but more than enough to not call them a strangers. If you literally never say more than a few words to this person like asking how they're doing (especially because you truly could care less) or just wave because you vaguely know them, that's an acquaintance. Get it right, get it tight. The thing about college is you actually have to make the effort to be "real" friends with people, especially if they do not live in your hall. It's kind of crazy, but most of your friendly interactions happen while eating. It seems like that's all anyone ever wants to do, like those weight gaining bars in Mean Girls. You just load up on unnecessary amounts of food and sit for hours and just talk. It gets old fast but that's when the most random things are said and friendships are struck up. The year has ended it's time to look back and figure out who will you actually be friends with next semester. Classes change, rooms are different, and the people you'll legitimately see will be totally random meaning even more new people to get to know, but you've got to have some rollover (what are we a cellphone bill?). Think about the people you spent the most time with, hopefully they're worth hardcore friending. The people that you felt comfortable around, those you were able to open up to about things deeper than just superficiality of classes, homework, and the party scene. It's those kinds of people, the ones that go just beneath the surface that are the ones you should be rolling deep with next semester. There's absolutely no need to drag out things that aren't going to work. In college, if you're not really anything with people there's no harm in dropping the goods. No harm, no foul - you all just didn't click. There's literally thousands of other people to be friends with. Check out the aftermath.

Home is always weird because it's kind of hard to tell where you belong. Coming home from college means being in a sort of limbo like on Charmed. You're in between two worlds, your home life with the people you know best and your brand new collegiate world. I'm sure by now you all realize that who you are at college is a slightly different version of who you are at home. The things that were okay at college are most definitely not appropriate for home. Here's the thing, if you look back at your year and realize you have things that you're embarrassed about actually saying or doing, then that's something that shouldn't be repeated. My rules for governing a majority of my life would be if my parents would approve, encourage, or be okay with whatever I'm doing. I'm my own person, but if I would have a hard time telling my parents what I'd been up to, then it's most likely something I shouldn't be partaking in. Dealing with the aftermath of your college lifestyle is one of those things you're going to have to do. Clean up the potty mouth, first and foremost. The foul language, the obscenities and vulgarities that became so mundane on your campus, need to go. Leave them at the door or you might catch yourself swearing at your fam-bam or even little kids at a grocery store, which is more than not alright. If you were a slightly raging alcoholic, you've got to watch you're underage consumption of the alchy. Bring in the reigns on downing those drinks and breaking those bottles. You cannot come back from hanging out with your high school friends a sick-nasty schwasted mess. Your parents will not be cool with you hanging around the house a belligerent foul or totally hungover. Get it together and sober up, at least for the summer. Drugs, they shouldn't be done in the first place, but if you do leave your stuff at school. Mom and pop most definitely would not condone your less than extracurricular habits. Leave the crazy at the door. Lastly, if you've become a master player or seductress in college, you're going to have take your game down a notch. You cannot be rolling with your parents and hitting on every pretty girl or hot guy you see. It's just super awkward to be trying to get your daddy mack (Cris-Cross, Timeflies lyrics) on with your parents around. That also means you should not be bringing home people to your crib. This is not your bachelor/bachelorette pad of a dorm room, and the hook-ups can not go down under your parent's roof. In short, the aftermath of your wild lifestyle, needs to go dormant until you're back on campus.

Lastly, in the aftermath of evaluating what exactly happened at college you need to come to terms with whether or not you're the same person you left for college as. I'm banking on not exactly. I feel like a completely different person. Stronger, more aware of my surroundings and way more outgoing (as if that was even possible). I speak more eloquenntly, make my points better, and am more likely to talk to strangers. It's weird. It's like I'm an upgraded version of who I used to be. It's most definitely an improvement. I look better, feel better, sound better, and am just overall better. College broadens your scope in a lot of cases and that did it for me. I notice all the concepts we talked about in class like inclusivity, the purpose of education, and all that mumbo jumbo wumbo. What I'm trying to get at is who are you? What makes you tick? What gets your gears grinding and your stomach churning? What has college done to you? How will you act or be now that you've returned. Those questions, you'll have to answer for yourself. All I know is you've got to deal with the aftermath.

Being a teenager is all about looking at things in retrospective. You get a totally different perspective when you're observing from above or at a distance (Avengers Jeremy Renner as "Clint Barton/Hawkeye" anyone). Things may appear different then what they actually are. It's time to get real, realize what actually happened and get with the program. We may be on summer vacation but we're just now dealing with the aftermath of the school year.


My blog post question for the day is ... what would you have done differently with your year? I would have definitely hung out with people outside of my hall sooner. Definitely would have made my entire school year way better and a lot more fun.

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