Today I really felt the age gap between my posse of 18 year olds and myself. If I'm being reductive, I can binarize the girls into two dominant personality categories. On one end of the spectrum are the loud ones with something to prove. They wear the most makeup. They've all had some shade of blue hair at one point. They like to shout-talk about all the raves they've been to, how much they love to party, how wild they used to be back in the day when they were in high school and they threw firecrackers at old people from the passenger's side of their boyfriend's car every. single. day. They take more risks with haircuts and styles. They make fast friends, and they laugh a lot, loudly. I catch occasional glimpses of my younger self in some of their antics. Just when one of them starts to really annoy me by being aggressively young and gregarious (and very vocally addicted to Adderall), she divulges some fascinating piece of personal history to melt my condescension. Much unlike myself, some of these girls have come from places of intense fear and instability: group homes, unsavory step-parents, unsavory biological parents, periods of homelessness, e.t.c. They are real life incredible. Most of them see this program, that I am so quick to dismiss as "not real school", as their key to independence. And I shamefully, silently, eat my former irritation.
On the other end of the scale are the quiet girls. They all have long, natural-colored hair. Literally all of them. They are slower to share anecdotes about their family, or to share at all. They live with their parents, of course. They seem to live at least 40 minutes outside of the Portland Metro area, and they think it's Manhattan. Once while I was getting coffee with one girl, she looks out the window and says something like: "Portland's such a crazy city I could never live here". They refer to downtown Portland as D.P. That one took me about a week to decode. Their hairstyles are classic and sweet. Last week braiding your hair into pretty holiday bows was common among this group. They are so quick to give compliments, they love compliments. They seem to watch a lot of TV.
These are not the university-bound, sharp-tongued, organic-consuming private school people that I spent my 18's around. They're much more foreign to me than I had anticipated. They're impressive, especially in their confidence. They are almost completely ignorant of current events. They all love animals and American Horror Story, so we find common ground there. They're challenging, but I am starting to really appreciate them and form attachments.
On the other end of the scale are the quiet girls. They all have long, natural-colored hair. Literally all of them. They are slower to share anecdotes about their family, or to share at all. They live with their parents, of course. They seem to live at least 40 minutes outside of the Portland Metro area, and they think it's Manhattan. Once while I was getting coffee with one girl, she looks out the window and says something like: "Portland's such a crazy city I could never live here". They refer to downtown Portland as D.P. That one took me about a week to decode. Their hairstyles are classic and sweet. Last week braiding your hair into pretty holiday bows was common among this group. They are so quick to give compliments, they love compliments. They seem to watch a lot of TV.
These are not the university-bound, sharp-tongued, organic-consuming private school people that I spent my 18's around. They're much more foreign to me than I had anticipated. They're impressive, especially in their confidence. They are almost completely ignorant of current events. They all love animals and American Horror Story, so we find common ground there. They're challenging, but I am starting to really appreciate them and form attachments.
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