Being 15 Really Does Suck. I Kind of Hated It Myself.

I end my final class each day a few minutes early in order to put the chairs up on the tables, to clean and straighten up the classroom. Sometimes this means we wait for the seconds to pass until the bell rings. I'm not one for releasing my students early. Nobody wants to be that teacher.

Today while we waited, I chatted with a handful of students.

A girl asked me, "Teacher, do you like your job?"

"I do. I love it, in fact. I feel lucky to have found my purpose in life."

To which the always stoic and silent "Braydon" interjected, "I would hate your job if I were you."

The girl continued with her chatter, ignoring Braydon's comment. "You're not married, right? And you probably don't have kids. I think I could teach little kids. Do you think you'd prefer to teach elementary, high school, or college? Did you choose high school?"

"I prefer high school. And that's what I'm trained to teach. I don't think I could do elementary. Little kids are cute, but not 25 or so of them at a time."

Braydon, still eavesdropping, "I hate little kids."

Braydon rarely says much, so I figured I'd best include him in the conversation.

"So what do you like?"

"Nothing."

"Do you like video games?"

"I hate gaming. It sucks."

"Music?"

It was almost painful for Braydon to answer in the affirmative, "Some of it is ok, I guess."

"Which genre? What bands?"

"Metal. Like Slipknot. Or Korn. Bands that talk about how much everything sucks."

And then the bell rang.

Oh Braydon, may life cease to suck so much sometime soon.

This isn't Braydon. Obviously.
Braydon wouldn't smile for the camera.
No, this is what came up when I searched "15 years old" in Google images.