Tuesday, September 4, 2007

speaking of teen angst...




Our recent discussions of YA novels and my attempts to organize the chaotic boxes of photographs in the spare room got me thinking about the influence of one's teenage years. (See above: circa 1988! Nice bangs, huh? And to think, that photo is almost twenty years old. Scary.)

Of course, these thoughts may have something to do with having a teenager in the house, too...

Do we ever really outgrow the anxieties we associate with youth?

Last night I had an anxiety dream, and (as always) it took place at school. I was taking an exam, and ran out of time. Half the test was left blank and I had to turn it in unfinished. I woke up feeling really, really stressed.

Whenever someone refers to adolescence as "the best years of your life," it makes me cringe...There must be some reason why we associate anxiety with teenagerdom. It seems contradictory that we also associate these years with being carefree.

Just an observation.

As an aside, I married the nice young man in that dance photo. We've aged a bit since 1988, yet I still have bad dreams about unfinished exams. And bad hair days.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

I have to tell you - those bangs were KILLER. I LOVE them!

I had interesting hair in my younger years as well. If you watch Full House, I pretty much always had whatever hairstyle DJ Tanner was rocking at the time. Oddly enough it was always unintentional since I never really watched the show...

Susan said...

I wonder if you and the actress who played DJ Tanner STILL have the same hairstyle...That would be pretty weird. (But kinda cool, I think!)

My bangs were so tall during the late 1980's that they used to brush the ceiling of the car while I was driving. Seriously.

Those were the Aqua Net days.