I am bored.

I think this is the grand declaration of teenagers all across the U.S and possibly Canada: WE ARE BORED.

I don't really know what it is about my particular age group, but summer often finds us lolling around on the couch, with books and computers and iPods and swimming pools and other such things surrounding us, and we'll be moaning that there's nothing to do. The same thing applies to food: we'll walk up to our mothers (or fathers) working in the kitchen, with the fridge full of vegetables and sandwich meat and fruit and cheese and whatever else, and we'll tell them quite seriously that there's nothing to eat.

My theory is that we just like to complain. We're just not complete without having something to moan about. I think it's sort of a subconscious sign that everything's as it should be, there's nothing big to worry about, we're in a place where we ought to be content.

But, as everyone knows, teenagers are uncomfortable with being content. Human beings, in general, aren't comfortable with everything being perfect. I think that there's a sort of need for difficulty and opposition in our lives somewhere. I know, for a fact, that when everything's peaceful and hunkydory in my life, I feel kind of restless and bugged. It doesn't feel right, to have everything be this perfect. I need something wrong. I need something....ah! There! We're out of peanut butter! That's no good! No good at all! My life is now balanced.

And there you have it. This need is particularly potent for my age group. I think all the TV and movies we watch (and all the - ahem - books we read) makes us need drama even more than we once did, in times past. Anyone who's attended a public high school knows that there's a sort of toxin in the air that causes people to act like a teenage soap opera when they're gathered together. This never really had an effect on me, because I have pretty much no social life at school (I know that I am considered to be something of a silent hermit in many social circles), so in those few times that I have interacted with my fellow students, it's sort of bemusing and a little bit funny (but mostly bemusing. Sometimes it's even a bit scary). I just never had a chance to become fully acquainted with teenage drama, and so seeing it in action is........yes, bemusing. I said it again.

More often than not, though, I have no patience for it. I listen to my sister talk about the boys she likes, and her friends talking boys they like (it seems that boys are the main focus for most teenage girls until they leave high school. Sometimes, though, it never seems to go away), and how this has such a big impact on their lives, and how it gets them into arguments and conflicts and flouncing about and tears.....it's pretty dramatic.

You know what, now that I think of it, most teenage drama is attributed to girls. That isn't to say there isn't teenage guy drama, but most of it is definitely girl stuff. I guess, since we don't generally get physical like guys do, we just make it mental and verbal.

So thus is my post. I am no longer bored. I am now inexplicably tired and wanting to take a nap. I think that this post made me think too much of high school. So I will stop it HERE, so I can stop thinking about it.

Ta!