I keep finding
myself saying the phrase “I sound so old”.
Obviously I’m not old, I’m
actually quite young but I don’t think I’m the only 18 year old who’s feeling
like this now and again. The idea of turning 18 felt a little bit scary to me and the idea of leaving home and
having to look after yourself is even worse. It’s the idea of being ‘officially’ an adult and having to grow up! I still feel like I'm about two and I still act like I am most of the time. I'm going to Disneyland Paris as part of the school music tour in July and despite being one of the oldest students going, I can guarantee that I will be the most excited one there, running around trying to get pictures with all the characters while dressed as a princess!
I'm sure this is bound to embarrass one of my friends who'll be there with me. Me and my best friend have made it our mission to embarrass this girl at school. She's in year 9 so we like to make her look as uncool as possible! I shout at her in the corridor, tell her to correct her uniform and tell her off for being cheeky to teachers. I'm just as embarrassing to my brother who's in the same year but he has the power to embarrass me back.
Both of them make me feel very old on a regular occasion. Often by using slang words that are now being said by EVERYONE their age but mean a completely different thing. The most recent word that I came across was when my friend told me she wouldn't be at Orchestra because "I'm going to a party because I'm MAINSTREAM". I thought that Mainstream was the opposite of Hipster. That you were a bit of a sheep, following the crowd, listening to chart music and wearing Chinos and Hollister hoodies. I questioned her use of the word to which she said "do you even understand what Mainstream means?" I was shocked and told her yes to which she said "well I don't know, I thought you might be too old".
After conferring with my brother over the word, I've found out that to 14 year olds now, the word mainstream means cool which doesn't make much sense to me. I hate the idea of patronising people younger than me but I do often refer to them as 'about 12' and laugh at year 9s in particular. I was ridiculous in year 9, so it's not exclusive to today's 14 year olds. I don't mean to be patronising but I'm going to be, we all are though. The latest thing that has allowed sixth formers to laugh at the year 9s in my school is the uniform protest, against a change in uniform policy...that hasn't changed anything.
We laugh at them, but life was definitely much easier in year 9 and I'd probably rather be sitting on the field moaning about not being able to wear skinny trousers and fake eyelashes to school than stuck inside doing A level practice papers.
