Thoughts, Ramblings, & Misunderstandings

Something that really chaps my hide these days is that we are giving youth a sense of entitlement. Entitlement to everything. I have no idea why our generation is doing this. We can sit here and complain about it, but we are the ones doing it.

Why?
Did we not feel entitled when we were young? Do we believe that since we grew up without everything getting handed to us that our children should be handed everything to them? We are ruining our children and I’m not sure there are enough people that realize it to stop it from happening.

Here’s a Trophy
Nowadays kids are getting participation trophies or ribbons. It’s not enough to make them try hard to get the trophy for first or second place. Nope. Mommy and Daddy paid their $75 to get you that trophy. Who cares if you come in last place as long as you get that trophy? In Little League, our team sucked. I mean we royally sucked. We once got a pizza party just for tying one of the best teams. And the game was called because of rain, so who’s to say we probably wouldn’t have lost it anyways. But I remember sucking every year and being so upset every year during the year-end awards ceremony. I had to sit there and watch the other teams get their trophies. I didn’t get a trophy so I had to work harder. So I did. It didn’t change our team’s fortunes, but I became a better baseball player because of it.

We were born to mothers who smoked and drank
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
Had three TV channels you got up to change
No video games and no satellite
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside

A snippet from the source of my “frustration”. Bucky Covington’s A Different World. Download it, legally, and listen to it.

I came across this story just a few minutes ago and it has infuriated me.

“DISD plan to ease grading standards angers teachers”

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student’s overall average will be thrown out.

School officials said the new guidelines are needed to ensure that all district teachers operate under the same rules and to create a “fair system” for grading students.
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Just finished watching Stand By Me on TMC last night. It has long been one of my all-time favorite movies. I just learned that it’s also a novella by Stephen King titled The Body.

During the last scene, the main character is finishing up writing his “memoir” of that summer. His last line was the following:I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

I had never really paid any attention to that part of the movie. But last night it made me think a lot about how life was when I was twelve.

You truly don’t have friends like you did when you were twelve when you get older. We would run around and play all day. Just on the brink of being a teenager, yet so far away from maturing. I know I could have counted on any one of my friends from back then to do something if I needed it. I’ve since lost touch with most of my friends from back then. Lives change and so do people.

We move away. We grow up. We marry. We have kids. We forget the people that were there for us when we were young. When you get older your friends virtually become your co-workers. It’s quite sad actually.