The other day in the car (mini-van of course!) I heard the first song below and found myself getting way more deep in thought than Snoop Dogg usually inspires. I was thinking, how tough kids have it today. What?!? I know, not only do I sound like a geezer, but one that’s lost her mind. I think they do though. I don’t mean little kids. I mean teenagers and college kids. I’m not talking about a tough economy or high college loans. I had all that crap when I was twenty as well.
But I didn’t have social media.
While I love my twitter and Facebook now, I can’t imagine some of the nights I had in college being documented, often in real time, for the world to see. As the song says, (not the radio version, the real version) I got drunk. I smoked a bit of weed. I did stupid, stupid things-some of which I didn’t even know about until someone told me the next day. And I maintain I needed all of it to help me grow up.
I also witnessed my friends get drunk and smoke way more weed than I ever did. I was often the sober one who really wanted to remember some of the silliness later. I’m glad I didn’t have a phone camera to upload those moments to the internet in a fit of hilarity. Because it wouldn’t have been funny when their future employers saw those moments during a google search. Even though they were normal, young kid moments, they don’t look that way captured in digital image.
Guess what? We all grew up. We’re all productive members of society. I don’t even drink that much anymore and I never smoke anything-legal or not-haven’t since those three attempts in college. (If something just makes you hungry and tired, I don’t really see the point.) I’m forever thankful that those “finer” moments aren’t caught forever on the internet.
I’m grateful all I had to worry about was pouring beer in a Pepsi can when I was wearing sorority letters, or putting down my drink for official pictures. I feel sorry for kids today. I hope they can still get drunk, smoke a little weed if they want and do all the stupid stuff we all did when we were twenty-without fear of it being on their Permanent Record.
**Caution-these lyrics and videos aren’t kid appropriate. In fact, they’re wildly inappropriate but they’re each pretty funny and the second one’s lyrics versus visual irony is awesome. Hell, this whole post isn’t kid appropriate! Proceed with caution.
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa-Young and Wild and Free
Fun:We are Young
P.S. Looking for more parenting guidance and tips for self-care? Check out From Chaos to Calm a guided training to help you feel better in this tough season.
