Thoughts and Things

A letter to the girl in my class:

My dear classmate:

Yes, I'm talking to you-

and to anyone else who acts like you.

You make my blood boil.

Yes, I said it.

Your whiny voice, your little act,

the way you constantly act like you're better than everyone else-

it's disgusting.

It's people like you who give teenagers a bad name.

And the worst part is that you're smart.

You're smart. You've got good grades,

a great future, a good head on your shoulders-

what on earth could have made you this way?

You've got good taste in music, I'll give you that,

-at least, if what you say is true.

You only seem to like classic rock,

and you have a great disdain for today's pop music.

That's okay. I like classic rock too,

and I don't always like everything on the radio.

But the way you act-

God, the way you act!

Your music is always superior, I know-

you remind everyone constantly.

You drop names so often that it's meaningless,

you might as well be dropping trash.

You have to tell everyone the bands you listen to,

you have to make fun of the people who listen to anything different.

Everything has to be laid out in front of you, in plain letters.

That's okay. Some people are like that.

It takes more time and effort to figure some things out.

I've had that problem before, too. It's okay.

But the moment something gets too hard,

the moment you realize it will take more than a second of thought,

you whine and complain, like maybe that will change the teacher's mind.

It is infuriating.

You may still be a teenager, but you are a young adult,

you are not a child.

Everything is not always easy or quick.

Grow up and deal with it.

And if you don't understand it-

or maybe you don't want to understand it-

then it's trash.

It's immediately useless to you.

It's not artistic, it's not interesting,

it's just words on a paper

or colors on a canvas

or notes in a song.

It's something you say you could write,

something you could do in five minutes,

so how could it be art,

how could it be worth studying?

You don't have to like everything-

that's not the point of these classes.

The point is to learn to appreciate art.

Just because you don't like it

doesn't mean you shouldn't appreciate that someone took time

to put effort into it.

And just because you don't like it

doesn't mean you should ridicule those who do.

In short:

Stop judging others.

Stop hating people with different opinions than you.

Stop whining.

Stop acting like you're better than everyone.

Please, for the love of God,

stop making me want to bash your brains in.

Just try treating people with respect for once in your miserable life

and stop making other people miserable-

that's all I ask.

Sincerely,

Yours truly.