Day Six- I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom.

Often, when I answer the Dean's phone I use the word "Yo." I think subconsciously I believe it makes me cooler. Today a student informed me that this thought is not true in the slightest. 

Earlier this week I was so excited about eating Grillers that I did a dance. A girl told me that I am "literally the whitest person." 

I'm 24. I think I used to be cool, but at some point it ended and I turned into Amy Poehler in the movie "Mean Girls".

I mean, I still pay attention to celebrities, and popular culture. But it's less Harry Styles, and more Benedict Cumberbatch: the middle-aged man with the odd looking face, and voice so deep he could dig for gold.

I don't have a smart phone, I don't listen to the radio, I don't watch a lot of TV. (Ok, that last one is a lie.) But all of these things work to equal one thing: I don't fit in with high schoolers.

I have different interests. 

I love Welcome to Night Vale podcasts, they like Teen Wolf. 

I like watching the news, they love the One Direction twitter feed. 

I like thinking of others, they are only capable of thinking about themselves.

Their favorite insults include "gay" and "retard," and trying to correct them is a losing battle.

They come into my office and tell me to take them to Wal-Mart. Right now. 

Not fitting in with high schoolers doesn't make me sad. I appreciate my wide world view that has come with having graduated from high school almost seven years ago. I love knowing that every issue I face is not a world ending event.

What these kids are going through is so vital. They are learning to find value in themselves, and to fight for themselves, and I look forward to watching many of them graduate and grow into beautiful adults. Being in the private school setting again has made me reminiscent about many of the things I love about Portland Adventist Academy, but more than anything it makes me happy that high school ends. Life really does get so much better.

Tristinn, the problem I find with the "Now" CDs is that they are trying too hard to be cool. They are like the popular kids: they decide what is cool. You don't have a choice. I want to live in a world that has moved beyond this type of thinking. I get decide what I like, I get to decide what I want to be obsessed with.

Moral of the story: Childhood was great. Adulthood is better. I think? I'm only 24, give me a few more years.