Memories of Another Me II
I'm now 15, finishing up my sophomore year of high school. If I was a girl, I'd be having a quinceañera right about now. But instead, I'm just looking back at what changed over from the past 5 years. I still kept up going to see my therapist. It became really important as middle school became the era of pre-teen awkwardness. That was especally the case because it was when I began struggling with some subjects. Well, mainly algebra and that was more I had to begin putting a bit more effort in it. But having that support system and so on helped alot. Beyond that, it was also letting me handle things of my emotions: the frustration of trying to get people and make friends and of course my own envy of my younger brother who was able to make friends well. But, having counsceling really helped me out there. And I got through middle school with few troubles. And things got better entering high school. I was able to start finding people I got along with and figuring out interests. I was still into Nintendo stuff. Still had my Nintendo Ulta 64 and the GameCube and then recently the Nintendo Wii. Stayed with franchises I mainly liked there, but also tried to experiment more with some other titles there. After all, there were recommendations like Nintendo Power and so on that recommended things. I also stayed with handhelds like with the GamePal DS. I still played Pokemon of course, but I began building out more with
Super Smash Champs, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Mario, Legend of Hyrule, and so on. I preferred a bit more the RPs mainly though also some of the more actiony games. My younger brother meanwhile would go more toward the Abox 360 and I got to look at a couple games there. Besides video games, I began getting into anime and manga more. Well, as in more than the average kid. It was still the South so the most people would know was Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon or a couple other stuff. The school was also having more clubs and some of them I would consider joining, because it did seem rather neat.
One other interest was me growing on the Internet. It started with computer class and seeing the sort of websites the other students got in. This is what introduced me to things like sprite comics, flash animation, and internet forums with sites like
Newgrounds and so on. It was a weird but fun time. I don't think alot of folks my age got the internet humor. I don't know if I shared much of this with my therapist, probably because I figure he wouldn't get it. But yeah, I would eventually get my own computer and go on my own on the Internet. I knew what I liked so I began exploring more and more, growing my field of interest. I began learning about more types of anime and manga, especially on the wild days of YouTube with clips and so on. I looked for Pokemon and found some forums there along with sprites and so on. There was alot of things competing for my attention over on the Internet. I began meeting with all sorts of people on forums and exposed to myself to all sorts of perspectives. I did my best not to take things seriously and would keep track of things as I would look through. I think there were times where my parents were becoming a bit worried if I was spending too much time online. Now, to be fair, it wasn't unwarranted. I still did my normal hobbies, but they were wanting me to do more and it'd be healthy for me. Of course, what helped mainly was the public transporation. By the time I left middle school, more and more towns and cities had bushes and were connected to such. I could now go across my town by bus if I wanted to and my dad would make my brother and I practice tasks, such as picking some things up from the various stores or bussing back. I began using it more as my town grew and I found some things to actually go and visit. One major thing would be a new outdoor mall area that was a bit further off, but given its size and influence, it would get some bus routes to it. With it, I was able to go a bit further out and become a bit more independent in how I was doing things. And I think affected something over when I entered high school. There was a chance for me to take a trip to Europe and that was something I think I wouldn't have been able to conside doing without the support I got from my folks and the therapy and the so on.
Of course, I still had a cell phone and everything to let my folks know where I was and I got more confident as I did it more. Sure I was a teenager now, but you can't be too careful. It did feel nice being to go where I wanted without having to use a car though and do things. It was a nice sense of freedom. And of course, there was also going to visit other places I initially wasn't aware of, which further expanded my horizons. All in my hometown. At the same time, I was still me. I still watched my cartoons and some other shows, played games and was on the web. But I felt like all of this stuff helped me out in feeling better and more confident in myself. I guess it also gave me a bit of a taste of wanting to travel more. Like, what else was out there? And of course, figuring out all the stuff about being a teenager. I wasn't one for peer pressure and so on. Also, I wasn't too confident to go and work at a job at one of these places. That said, I did do some volunteering. Middle school and high school helped really push that and even had that as a requirement. For me, I ended up volunteering at the library. I liked books, even though I wasn't a super big reader (I still liked to read.) It did make me wonder if being a librarian wouldn't be too bad of a job. It was pretty nice. And speaking of jobs, I guess figuring out what I want to do is a challenge. Some of my classmates would be more wanting to go to technical college and do blue collar work, working with your hands and all. That wasn't for me. I wasn't much for handiwork, but I really didn't know what else to do. Though some of the stuff in school was helping out there, especially with pointing in the direction. That said, I knew that work wasn't everything. My dad leaving HP after working there for like 20 years or something due to the change in management was something that made me realize the nature of work. That being said, the fact that the schools were doing more to help the students looking for jobs was something I appreciated. Especially since this wasn't done as well in the old ways apparently.
Looking around, not much is going, at least major. Not as many cars on the road. People could bus more and some of them would take stops to bigger buses that went further out.The lunches and breakfasts at school got even better and some of the stuff grown in like school gardens. Better from a few years back. For me and my fellow students, it was just the normal teen stuff for the most part. The 2000s was pretty peaceful. For us, it was about the second rise of hip-hop and rap combined with some of the punk stuff over in music. Fashion wasn't as big as it used to be and from what the talk was, it was mainly because of the wastefulness. I wasn't into sports so I couldn't contribute much on that front, nor for cars. Games were a bit complicated because some of my peers were liking more of the more mature looking shooting games, HALO and everything descended over from it. I think as more clubs are being born, there more stuff there is to do and I think they like encouraging students to join and give things a try. Both to try and keep us out of trouble and have us try new things.
It's a pretty good time for growing up though. Alot of stuff is good though I can't help but wonder if it could be better. And there was stuff in the future to think about like what I wanted to do and what made me happy. I liked drawing, but I wasn't sure how good I was at it, and if it'd be stable. And I was being exposed to more things that were making an impact on me. One would be hearing about a convention over in Atlanta known as
DragonCon that occurred on Labor Day weekend. Would really like to go to that. And I think it's more about figuring out more of myself, ya know? Right now, being 15 is pretty okay for me. And there's lots of new things coming out. More YouTube videos, wondering how big MySpace is gonna grow and the similar websites, and so on.