This is a Post About Love

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." - Game of Thrones

(Title in reference to this song)


Last week my friend was telling us a story in which a man told a bunch of teenagers he knew for certain that they'd never been in love. Now, I'm inclined to believe that he's probably right, but it still made me think.

When we're young, we can't be trusted to know when we are or are not in love. Heck, when I was (much) younger I had this whole thing about "Wait, how am I supposed to tell if I have a crush on someone?" Is it love? Is it infatuation? Is it just strong "like" ? So other people determine it for us-- you are not in love.

But then when you hit a certain age you're suddenly trusted to know these things, without anyone looking at you and saying "Yes, now you are in love. Real love."

So really, how can you trust any given adult to know what being in love is like any better than a teenager? Sure, it's more likely, since most people grow wiser with age (and if you observe them in a loving relationship, then they presumably have experience with these things), but it's not guaranteed. Just like there's 16 year olds who are more than able to vote intelligently and 30 year olds who really aren't.

I really, really like the passage that I quote in this post, since it actually lays out some criteria for it. My English teacher this past year hands it out to her freshmen when they read Romeo and Juliet and her juniors just because. And I'm very glad to have it.

A Comment

"Personally, I'm largely in favor of knowing things, but I think what sucks about being forced to learn a whole bunch of things you aren't directly interested in and don't see any inherent value in and don't need to know is that it makes learning things sort of terrible. Like, I don't think there are very many people who _really_ only care about either mathy things or languagey things. I think everyone has a very unique and eclectic range of interests, and they are interested in things to varying degrees, and I think the good kind of knowing things is having the ability to explore and understand and use those interests in a way that makes you excited about life and knowing even more things and gaining new interests and learning about them." - Ladylechuga, in a comment

I'd Like to Know

I have a friend who once wrote an entire essay (for English) about how he doesn't understand why he, a future engineer, needs to take English or be required to read certain books. I have another friend who's annoyed that important college-entrance things like the ACT require him to do math, even though he wants to go into theatre, which isn't exactly math-intensive.


Personally I'm on the side in favor of English, but I'd argue against both of them--not that I think a theatre major will ever need to use math beyond maybe geometry, but because I basically figure that knowing things is good.


Then again, I'm one of those crazy people who finds most things at least a little bit interesting, so that helps. In Spiderman last night when Harry asks Peter, "Who'd want to know that?" and he replied "Who wouldn't want to know that?" I thought "YOU UNDERSTAND ME!"


I agree that at some point it only makes sense to focus in on one area and not bother learning the other stuff, but I'm not exactly sure when that should be. Because on the one hand, if you really don't care about xyz and really don't think you'll ever want/need to know it, you shouldn't have to waste your time. But I also think that the more you know just in general, the better off you are.


Or, you know, maybe I just feel better about myself when I know things.

I Dreamed a Dream

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” - Terry Pratchett

I love how dreams are something we can all relate to and talk about, but they're the most intensely private things we have.


We can talk about the "chased but can't run" dream or the "naked in public" dream and almost everyone has had those experiences. We all know how dream logic works, and how flying works and how it feels, and how dreams melt into each other.


But at least for right now, it's completely impossible to actually experience someone else's dream. It's something we absolutely must do alone. (Unless you're Leonardo DiCaprio, of course.)


I don't really have a point here--this is just a thing I was thinking about. There's probably a great metaphor I could find or something, but I'm going to go watch Spiderman with my family instead.

A Blog Post (About Summer and Things)

"A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation." - Mark Twain

Graduation was today, and the valedictorian's speech referenced Lord of the Rings, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Stephen Colbert. Needless to say, it made me very happy. Although I do have a lot of senior friends I probably won't ever see again, so...I'm somewhat less happy about that.


And no, I don't count as a senior yet. Not until the water tower across the street from my school reads "Class of 2013." And to think when I was younger I thought that whole thing was really stupid. Doesn't everyone know that the class of 2006 is graduating in 2006? What's the point? Let's just say I get the point now.


I'm not by any means taking a victory lap class-wise next year (6 or 7 AP classes), but life-wise? I'm good. Really good. Happy about the way things have shaped up, and several lightyears beyond excited for everything coming up. 


(My natural anxiety says everything will fall down in shambles around me, but I'm ignoring him. He's annoying.)


Writing-wise (that is what this blog was originally supposed to be about, right?), lack of a Macbook means lack of Scrivener means lack of ability to work on novels, but I am working on a sort-of play (prose for now, with every intention of switching formats later on), which is a different but fun experience that I'm enjoying. So far it's kind of a mixture of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (except less awesome).


And then of course, there's the sheer fact that it's summer. Hard to be upset about that.