not normal

I know I've expounded on the fact of my weirdness before, probably more than is necessary. At this point, am I further alienating you, the reader, or just depicting a more realistic, rounded, relatable* version of myself? Either way, I'm going for accuracy and also, my 11 o'clock-at-night-I-want-to-be-in-bed brain isn't up to anything more profound or creative.

Sometimes when I'm at events where the age differential between me and everyone else in the room is no less than thirty years, I am asked about a youth perspective on different topics. "Why do you think the majority of young people don't vote?" "How do you feel about this or that issue, seeing as how you're the one who is going to be living on this planet in forty years?" "What do the young people have to say?"

And what do the young people have to say? I think I'm the wrong person to answer that question. I am not normal. I don't go to school. I hang out at social justice film festivals and philosophers' cafes. My idea of a party is to invite friends over to watch Harry Potter movies. Two summers ago, I was part of a Jane Austen book club. I'm hardly the person whose opinion would match the "average young person.**"

You see, my Friday night--after an hour of selling Girl Guide cookies--was spent knitting and playing Scrabble. I use words like expounded and existential. I never go anywhere without my notebook and a pen. I shop at thrift stores and I forget to brush my hair. I hate plastic bags and SUVs and apathy. I am not average and normalcy is a foreign language to me.

The strangest bit, perhaps, is how okay I am with all of it. I mostly like who I am, or at least the idea of myself I keep stored in my mind. Maybe I can't explain my generation to anyone or give a general opinion from the perspective of today's youth, because I can't understand us myself***. But I have my own opinion. It comes from my own corner of existence and through my own slants and perspectives but I've thought about it and it's there, if you want to hear it. I can't speak for the teenagers of the world but I can speak for myself. And maybe that's enough.

*in different, niche ways.
**whatever the hell that is.
***maybe no one can.