Tuesday, February 8, 2011

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.

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

Oh, bless!

Natalia said...

As you were writing about "Braydon," that was almost the exact image I had in my mind of him.

Jen said...

I had a more goth image in mind, but that is a good one, too! May the stars of happiness align in his direction, soon.

Anonymous said...

Haha. Oh dear. That is SO my nephew. He's got more melodrama in him than an afternoon of soap operas! Have you read "Fifteen" by Beverly Cleary? Cute cute cute, but probably not up to the standards of your usual reads...I'm guessing. I dunno, try it.

Unknown said...

Oh no, it's a male version of myself as 15!

Poor guy, maybe some musical theatre classes will cheer him up :)

Rie Pie said...

wow...I would have been that kids bff in high school

Rie Pie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lildonbro said...

ha-ha, I love that you have some random 15-year old on your blog. This post is awesome.