#aplang15kincaid

[jaymarieg-lecki-blog-blog]

Turning 17

Hell yeah, I'm 17. I can drive past 10, I can see R rated movies and those assholes at Meijer can no longer take away my movie choices because I'm 16 (crazy you can consent to sex and drive a car but can't buy a movie). But here it is, the big 17. Not a huge year but a new year. And I was wrong. Turns out, that cool driving past 10 rule only applied when your grandmother actually likes you and let's you stay out that late. I guess being older isn't that cool. I want to be a kid again.

[cheyennewestover]

Idea of Reality

    Once when I was a young girl, I thought that my family was perfect. The perfect American Dream, with the white picket fence and all. My mother cooked dinner for my father every night. My father went to work while my mother ran an at home day care. I played with my cousins daily and we had a dog. On Sundays, we went to church. On Wednesdays,  my siblings and I went to Sunday school. We had a dream life. Then when I was 6 years old I was uprooted from everything I knew, my friends, my cousins. My family moved us from Marlette to Auburn Hills. A two hour drive. 

    We then lived in an apartment, my mother no longer worked at home, and my father was gone as usual. I went to school, and made new friends. Our new house slowly became home. But this time we had chores. My brother and sister learned to cook and clean. But me being 6, I only had to clean the bathroom. Mom still cooked for dad every night. She still took care of us. She just didn't have all the time with us like before. Though the major difference was, my birthday was always skipped over and celebrated on the weekend. Then three months before I turned 11 years old my life turned upside down. 

    My father sat my siblings and I at the dinner table and told us that he was leaving my mother because she was too fat. My brother and sister didn't seem surprised at all. I was shell shocked. My family was no longer perfect. My father left a week later and didn't come back for 3 months. He helped my mom move us into a trailer. But that’s it. My mother then worked three jobs to support us. We did all the chores and had to cook for ourselves. My mommy didn't play with me anymore. 

kreinbring65

[mohiuddin-baig]

Epiphany - idea vs. reality

Freedom. USA. Patriot. Laws. Justice. What do these words all have in common? The answer is that these words were planted in my brain as a small child. I learned them from a young age in school, because all good little boys and girls must learn about their country, our good ol ‘ USA (MURICA!) To be completely serious though, most little kids won’t start forming their own political opinions until maybe 11 - 12 years old. We were raised to think of America as perfect, it’s constitution and law makers fair, and it’s policies and people always good and right. I love my country very, very much. But one thing is for certain, and that is that the idea is very different from the reality. The America we knew and loved as kids shattered before me at a certain point, and I realized we weren't all we’re made up to be. Between corruption, greed, war, and other conflicts, America sure doesn't looks the way it did for me at 8 years old. I still love it all the same, but now I see the cold, hard truth instead of the sugar coated stuff we learned back then. God bless America. She’s gonna need it.  

[alexaaalonso]

Idea vs. Reality

I think this concept (or this sentence) is something that is so evident in a lot of people’s lives. We have our perceptions about things before we even experience them. I think the “idea” of “popularity” is something that is conceived as a great thing/idea but in reality, the “popularity” isn’t even popularity at all. From TV, you get the idea that popularity is what all the coolest kids in school get. However, when I hung out with the “popular” kids my freshman year, I realized that if this was “popular,” I did not want to be any part of it. I didn’t really like the things they did and eventually realized that people didn’t like them for them! I would rather be liked for me myself, rather than just being liked for having the label “popular.” From the outside, it may seem like things are great, but the reality can actually be so far from their perceptions.

[claudiaaitonean-blog]

Idea vs. Reality

When I came to the US, I was looking forward to all that people talk about. Even though it was just 5 years ago, I feel like it was yesterday. The thought of coming here was dreadful, leaving all my family and friend behind, and thinking to start new in a country thousands of kilometers away, without knowing what anyone around me is blabbering. But there was a type of excitement that was inside also. America. The dream country for every European out there. I expected so much. The idea of coming was just like a dream that was too good to be true. When I arrive here though, all that I expected it to be, all of those things, it was not. The craving to be back with my family and friends was, and still is sometimes, just overwhelming. I kept thinking "why in the world did we come here?" I didn't care about the opportunities that were available for me here, I just wanted to go back to the people who loved me and the people I loved.

[ritadixs16-blog]

“The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide deep and dark.”

All my life I've been waiting for high school. I couldn't wait to drive, I couldn't wait to have my own locker, I couldn't wait to be on the schedule that I had picked, I couldn't wait for that independence. Elementary was boring and way too small. Nothing was ever really mine we shared everything is a class. I couldn't wait to be alone. Middle school was annoying, it was like dangling something in front of my face but never really getting a chance to get it,there was different classes but it wasn't picked for you. They told you what you going to learn. And finally getting the high school freshman year it was great I could do it ever I want and it almost felt like no one cared. It was all up to me I got to pick and choose what I wanted to learn. I was completely and utterly alone in my decisions. And that's when it got dark. I began to want someone to help me make decisions, to help me know what I should know for what I want to do. And just as they all started to disappear I Began to want to be able to share with people again like talking and just being friendly. High school is never what I thought I wanted. It's not at all as free and desirable as it seems, before you get there.

[ash-andrews]

“The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide deep and dark"

I always had a deep trust in the people around me, and that they were the best people in the world. Even though they made mistakes, I didn’t care. As I got older, it was harder to realize some mistakes, and I learned that people are not always who they appear. Again I understand people make mistakes, but it’s hard to realize that the people you look up to aren’t always who you think they are.

[nataliemarsala]

In elementary school and middle school I so badly wanted to grow up and be a high schooler. I could get my own license drive a car maybe get a job along the way, and hang out with people who are older than me! Cool! But as soon as I got to high school I wanted to be back in elementary school where all we did was color for homework. I hated the people and drama high school brought me, the upper classmen were mean to freshman (some were nice but most of the time they all hated us). classes got harder and teachers got more strict. Don't grow up, it's a trap.