Easily Influenced

The black and white views, ideals, and pastimes of American teenagers burst into Technicolor during the 1950s, transitioning from a traditionally strict and preemptively decided future to a life of rebellious freedom filled with rock-n-roll. Teenagers everywhere experienced the generational gap between themselves and their ‘folks during a revolutionary post-WWII time, when life was to be enjoyed and fun was to be had. The standard of American living was quickly changed during this influential decade, the typical white middle class way of life was ever popular and prosperous, children aged fifteen and up became known as ‘teen-agers’, a generation of high school aged children whom received freedom and time to spend which ever way their young hearts desired. But with freedom comes rebellion, and that is just what America’s first generation of teenagers did, they rebelled. It seems that the teenagers circa 1950s rebelled against just about everything which was right in their lives; because once one is given a taste of something… they always want more. That first taste would be of freedom, freedom to do as they pleased… music, clothing, dating, friendships, sports, driving… anything, it was under their responsibility and choice, parental guidance wasn’t as strongly invoked as it had been in days of yore.
Before the 1950s, young males were expected to sustain jobs or join in the efforts of the war, to help provide for their families and their country. In turn, young women were expected to master all things domestic (cooking, cleaning, sewing, and mothering) and to be good housewives once they were married off. Things changed after the war, people realized the importance of happiness, safety, and family… thus joining the military wasn’t as strongly suggested as it was during the 1940s. The 1950s were typically a wholesome time, families sat together around a TV set to enjoy a relatively mild comedy show, children hula-hooped and played with slinkies, and teenagers, being on the cusp of adulthood, began to experience life as most young adults know it. Nights were spent at sock hops, drag races, drive in movie theaters, and diners. Roller skating, biking around, and cruising in either the family car or your own, was the way to get around. Poodle skirts, fitted sweaters, denim jeans, leather jackets, saddle shoes, and penny loafers were in style. Sounds peachy keen, right?

Wrong. With all of this new found freedom and leisure time, teenagers began to develop into their ‘own’ generation. They could listen to whatever music they wanted to, because they had more spending money. Music developed along with the teenagers and it began to reflect the challenges and nuances of life. Rock-n-roll was born! The fast paced, hip shaking, rhythm filled music began to take over… becoming a way of life. Gone were the pureness and simplicity of twist and the mashed potato… now you had all sorts of suggestive and progressive lyrics and dance moves flying around. To be rockin’ and a rollin’ was to be cool, if you weren’t with it, then you were considered a wet rag. You catch my drift? The music inspired and even in some ways guided teenagers into their own rebellion, a rebellion against authority and conformity in their lives. Attitudes of teens changed, they quickly became nonchalant, defensive, secretive, and even at times disrespectful. Artists like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Bill Haley put out hits, which eventually became the soundtrack to a 1950s teenager’s life. Music is easily the biggest influence in a young adult’s life, it effects everybody in some way, shape, or form… teenagers especially, with their fragile developing self conscious selves. The ethnic and infectious tones of du-wop music helped put African American musicians on the map with teenagers, musicians who were Caucasian but sang with an African feel grew to be enormously popular with teens as well, so of course… parents of typical white middle classed teenagers associated this ‘jungle music’ with their teens rebellion. This of course, propelled the teens to rebel even more against what their parents chose, just because that’s what teenagers do.

Fast-forward to the next decade, the 1960s… a time of peace, love, and yes… music. The 60s were a revolutionarily radical and transitioning time, most often when you think of the 60s, you think of psychedelic drug use, rock music, freelove, civil and women’s rights, anti-war movements, and space exploration. This was a time when teenagers really came into their own and broke the mold, change was craved and they did whatever was in their power to make change happen. The ‘baby boomers’ of the previous generation were growing up and at this point, were in their teenaged years. Rebellion was once again popular amongst teens, as they too, rebelled against what the ‘man’ (also known as their parents) wanted them to be. This was the age of youth, the age of new thinking… thus being, new ways of education, entertainment, lifestyles, laws, and values came to be. The 60s were all about free thinking and nonconformity, they were also about… the Beatles, said to be one of the influential and popular bands ever. Four English blokes and their catchy music invaded American radio and television sets in what was aptly named, The British Invasion, in which popular bands from Britain came to America, their music’s popularity growing rapidly like a wild fire. With all this new music came new dance moves, which is one of a teenager’s favorite ways to express themselves. Dancing and music went together hand in hand, they were both ways in which teenagers could break out and express themselves… so that’s what they did, whether it was on a television show broadcast like American Bandstand or at a club or a giant festival like Woodstock. As with all music that a child of a parent listens to, music of each decade was examined and critiqued by adults for its suggestive and vulgar lyrics. What parent wanted their fifteen year old listening to a song about LSD? (The Beatles. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.". Parlophone, 1967) Although the parents of the 60s were seen as more accepting and freedom endorsing, there were some limits on what they wanted their children to do, which brings us back to teenagers rebelling, again, only this time... it’s current.

We live in the 21st century, a new millennia, a revolutionary time, but it seems to me that every decade is revolutionary… with each generation comes new things. Teenagers of today’s modern day time still face the same problems teenagers of decades past faced. There is still the ever present craving and need to rebel against societies norms, teens today still deal with the pressures of parents, academics, sex, and drugs. And teens today still express themselves in music and dance. With each generation that I have examined, similarities pop out. Through out the fifties, sixties, and now… we’ve had to deal with war of some form… whether it is chemical, revolutionary, civil, political, or nuclear warfare, we’ve all had to watch our nation face it. The draft was present in a pre-50s time, anti-war sentiments raged through the 60s, and currently the nation is dealing with both. Tying this back into music and dance, all of themes still hold to be true today. Teenagers still sway together to songs of the past, but they also bump-n-grind to today’s current hip-hop/rap songs about demoralizing women and how cool it is to be a thug.

We all have a soundtrack to our lives, a choreographed number to some significant occurrence, or a special song that helps us zone out… dancing and music are what has been bringing together generations for well, decades, its universal and timeless for each coming generation.

Read this and...

comment, subscribe even! This being: Peco's Thoughts, my good friend's blog. If you've got a sense of humor, then you'll appreciate it.

(Ps, Mr. Smith. I commented on this. 187 words.)

Quick question!

Why does everyone like summer so much? What's so great about sunburns, crowded beaches, television reruns, summer school, and bug bites? Okay, maybe that was two questions... but you get my point.

More on my dislike of this sunny season later...

Childish Dreams: Princess Syndrome

As a child, you go through many career aspirations, whether it be wanting to be a doctor, a ballerina, a chef, a painter, or even a horse. This dream job could change just as easily as you could change out of your brand new peanut butter and jelly stained t-shirt and into a clean one, it was that simple. The expectations and responsibilities of young children are minimal compared to... say, that of a high school junior... by then your college choice and career field should already be decided and the days of changing aspirations should be long gone. Your biggest worry as a child would be if you were going to miss Dora the Explorer on TV after school or if you were remembering how to write letters correctly. Teenagers have much larger worries, such as, is your GPA high enough to get into that dream school of yours? What about fitting in with the 'cool' kids in your class? Or pleasing mom and dad at home? All of these questions, just begging to be answered and answered correctly.

I'm sure you're wondering where I'm going with this and I will tell you... NOW. Growing up, I was (and I'll admit to still being) a girly girl, I loved playing with dolls and dressing up and hated getting my clothing dirty. Naturally, being a princess, was the perfect job for myself! It was what I wanted to be more than anything (okay, so maybe I could be a princess who rode horses, painted murals, could cook a mean foie gras, and had a PhD) and every day, I would dress up in princess-like costumes and boss my two dogs around as my loyal subjects. I would host tea parties and balls for all of my stuffed animals, put myself into damsel in distress type situations (once I got myself stuck in a tree so my brother's friend had to rescue me and... oh nevermind), and deck myself out with my mother's jewelry in an effort to be even more of a princess. It was what I loved to do, it was what I dreamed of doing for the rest of my life. Being a princess seemed like the absolutely perfect thing to do. I mean, c'mon, what girl wouldn't want to wear beautiful ball gowns and tiaras? But as I got older... my dream of being a princess slowly faded away. I gave up, naturally because I'm neither blood related nor have any connections to any royal families, so what was the point of dreaming, hoping, and wishing that one day... I would live in a grand castle (much like the one at Disneyland), waltz around a gilded ballroom, descend huge staircases in flowy gowns, and live happily ever after with my very own Prince Charming?

Every now and then, what I like to call my "princess syndrome", plagues me and I find myself reverting back to my childhood habits of dressing up, twirling around, and pretending that I rule over my very own kingdom. But then reality hits, I put down my plastic tiara, and get back to my homework. A girl can dream though, can't she?

My To Do List Pt. 2

21- Find a cure for juvenille diabetes.
22- Pull straight A's all year during my senior year.
23- Be the first member of my family in this generation to go to college AND graduate.
24- Befriend as many people as possible, "It's all about the people you know..."
25- Write a movie script.
26- Get 100 followers on www.twitter.com
27- Learn how to tell apart sets of identical twins.
28- Swim with sharks, whether in a cage or not in a cage.
29- Make blogging a daily thing.
30- Travel OUTSIDE of California, culture myself.
31- Design a line of price concious yet fashionable dresses.
32- Swim in a cranberry bog.*
33- Grow my hair out to be waist length, then cut half of it off and donate to Patene Beautiful Lengths.
34- Make peace with anybody who I've ever wronged.
35- Invent something (I don't know what yet).
36- Tone up and take better care of my body.
37- Finish a story instead of getting half way through with writing and then quitting.
38- Build the confidence of myself and others around me.
39- Give James a cupcake -James. Write down quotes of weirdos.
40- Eat a Sweet Treat Cupcake from Coldstone Creamery.

(*This has been a dream of mine ever since the moment I first saw a commercial for OceanSpray Cranberry Juice... It should actually be number one on my to-do list.)

Quick Thoughts Part One: Love

Love: Noun, Verb [luhv] Loved, Lov-ing a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

Just the other day when I was talking with a very special friend of mine, the question of love came up. He asked, "What is love to you?" And for a minute, I was speechless, nobody had ever asked me that before and I hadn't had an answer for it. Until suddenly it hit me, I had an answer, every feeling of love I'd ever felt came rushing to the front of my memory, just begging to be vocalized. I answered with this...

"To me? Love is among the greatest feelings in the world, if not the greatest. You can feel love towards anything and there are many types of love. You can love doing something, like you love golfing and I love dancing. You can love eating, sleeping, or reading. Love is just that way. You can love and be loved by your family, which to me is one of the truest forms of love... the kind you feel because your family will always be there for you. Your pets or animals can love you, you can tell by the way they protect you or cheer you up. They know it just as well as you and I do. You can love your friends and they can love you, in the platonic way of course. Love for your friends comes from the feelings of trust and happiness you get when you're around them. For the most part, you're friends will stick by you and try their hardest to cheer you up when you're down."

By this point, the person I was talking to was just nodding along, agreeing mostly with what I was saying, and making 'mhm' noises. Then, I turned the tables and asked him a question.

"And there's love love, the special type. Haven't you ever been in love?"

His response, "Well... I've felt love towards and from my friends and family. But no, I've never been in love."

I got into a tizzy when I'd heard this, never been in love? Never been in love?! This person was missing out!

"Well then I feel like you've been robbed because when you're in love and being loved in return... it's amazing. Everything is brighter, you're determined, you're happy, it's like... you can do anything when you're in love. Things are better, everything makes sense. And you know all those cheesy love songs on the radio? You'll smile and find yourself relating to them, thinking that the musician and lyricist wrote this song just for you and your special someone."

The conversation carried on from there, it lasted for about a good hour or so and I felt like it was one of the better discussions I'd had in a long time. His final answer made it just that much better, "This being in love thing sounds good. I'd like to try it."

So that's it, my first quick thought blog post, about one of my favorite things. What can I say? I'm a dreamer, a wisher, and a hopeless romantic.

Realization

I am on the cusp of becoming a senior at Technology High, wow. We're a few days shy of the month of April, April brings Spring Break, STAR testing (for the last year -woo!), and SATs. Then comes May, everyone is just itching to get out and enjoy the lovely weather... but we're gearing up for what's coming next. June. Finals, finals, finals, oh and graduation for our beloved senior class! Once they've graduated, they're out... I mean I'm sure most of them will come back and visit as often as they can next year because Tech High is so magnetic. But for some, they won't be coming back. They're going off to be adults in the world and to attend the college of their choice. Which brings us back to what I'm trying to get at. For almost three years, I've been lumped in with a group of 60 or so other kids. Wonderful, funny, smart, creative, and talented kids. Bonds have been formed and broken, but for the most part... we're all in this together. We're going to be seniors, the grade you dreamed about when you were playing on the playground in third grade, the grade you dreaded when you'd pass by a group of tall and intimidating older kids, the grade you can't wait to just get through when you're working on your twenty plus page white paper. This is it, guys. We're almost there; I say we finish our junior year off beautifully and try to make our school, staff, teachers, and families proud.

My To-Do List

1- Become a YouTube/Internet sensation.
2- Master the piano, guitar, and drums.
3- Visit each Disneyland/world/park in the world.
4- Raise $$$$ for my school.
5- Do something that makes a difference.
6- Have my photography be featured on ABC7's picture of the morning, again.
7- Make my parents proud.
8- Become fluent in Spanish, travel to Spain/South America to employ my language skills.
9- Make somebody's day, every day.
10- Play Bridge with my grandparents and their friend, Shirley Temple.
11- Improve my hand-eye coordination.
12- Continue the learning of ballroom dancing, possibly start a club at school.
13- Volunteer more often.
14- Become a Big Sister (not a literal one, a member of the organization).
15- Win a trophy.
16- Write and publish a successful and charming children's book.
17- Teach kindergartners how to read.
18- Learn how to sew.
19- Make sure that all of the people who have ever inspired me, loved me, or guided me... know just how much what they've done means to me.
20- Work for the Disney Corporation or Hollywood Records.

*These are in no particular order. The list is growing...

"That's so going on Twitter!"

The situtation: You're out on the town on a Tuesday night with a gaggle of friends, you've decided to stop and eat somewhere, when the clown of the group decides to stick beverage straws up his nose and poses for a picture while doing so.
The problem: You want to share this funny moment with all of those who aren't out with you at the time.
The solution: Twitter it!* (The grammatically correct saying would be 'Tweet it Up')

By now, you're puzzled. Twitter? What's that? Isn't that a heart condition? Or something bees do? Twitter is the latest craze to sweep the world of social networking, it is currently the third most popular website (falling behind front runner, Facebook, and coming in at a close second, MySpace). The site has been active and on the web for exactly three years (the third 'birthday' was celebrated last week!) and was developed by a quartet of blogging and podcasting masters in the sweet city of San Francisco, California. No, Twitter is not a heart condition... and it is not something that bees do. What it really is, is an elegant and delightfully simple social networking tool that can be accessed via web browser or mobile phone. Users post updates or 'tweets' about what they happen to be doing at the moment or where they are. Videos, links, and pictures can be posted in the tweets for all of their 'followers' to see. A 'follower' is merely someone who has subscribed to someone's updates and receives them on their homepage/Twitter timeline. Followers are not to be confused with stalkers, which the site has jokingly been referred to as a tool for stalking-made easy! When you 'follow' somebody on Twitter... you will inevitably be bombarded with their updates (depending upon how Twitter-active they are), so at any given moment... you could know what your favorite comedian is up to, what your boss is working on, or what your class mate is eating. A wide range of celebrities and people of importance can be found on the site and while not ALL of them may be authentic, there's a very good chance that the person posting the tweets IS that person indeed. Barack Obama, our nation's newest president, manages a Twitter account, as well as members of the Good Morning America news crew, celebrity talk show hosts (like Ellen Degeneres), and even musicians (such as John Mayer).

I personally follow the New York Times, a handful of celebrities, classmates, and friends. Twitter is a great way to stay connected to just about everyone and you can often find me 'tweeting' a picture of a silly friend's doing or informing my followers of my educational day at school. It won't be long until I find out that my grandparents or even my own dog (yes, some people's animals have Twitter accounts) have been tweeting, following, and replying. This site is personally and highly recommended by myself, it's a fun and simple way of networking and communicating.

Follow me @ twitter.com/chelzeymccrazy

The Big Box Debate: To Build or Not To Build?

Recently the Wal*Mart corporation discontinued it's efforts to open up one of their super markets in the Northern California town of Santa Rosa, after five years of trying to bring a staple of the super center to town. The said store would've created an influx of jobs (which is beneficial for everyone in today's rough times), stimulated the region's economy, brought bargains into the lives of people who need to save money, and created tax breaks. All great things, am I right? Let's just assume I am and move on to why there will be no Wal*Mart in the town of Santa Rosa... the city thinks that by bringing another member of the Big Box Club (more on that later), would be too big of a risk in today's struggling economy and would cause too much stress on the environment. Uh, hello?, there are these great things called taking chances and recycling! Sure, I can see a couple of the down sides to bringing in a Wal*Mart to such an industrial town like Santa Rosa... for instance... more traffic! In the already crowded and traffic riddled city, the added amount of people traveling to and from the super center daily to stock up on necessities, would just further add to the hour long crawl on Santa Rosa Avenue. Another downside to Wal*Mart? It would contribute to urban decay, the store would produce thousands of pounds of waste daily with all of their boxes and packaging they use. By now you might be unsure of where I stand on this issue, so I'm going to set you straight. Build it!

Santa Rosa is already chopped full of stores that are members of the Big Box Club (yes, it's later... so I will tell you about the BBC as I have so aptly nicknamed it). In order for a store to be considered a 'Big Box' store, it has to be a part of a chain. You're familiar with chain stores, aren't you? There are over 20 Starbucks Coffee houses located through out Santa Rosa, which is a pretty large number for such a small city. Other Big Box Clubbers that have made their homes in Santa Rosa include Toys'R'Us, Barnes & Noble, Sears, Target, Costco, and Lowe's. These big named stores can be found just about anywhere and are constantly filled with consumers. Why not add Wal*Mart into the mix? It's just another store, apart of just another chain, taking over just another town.