Sunday, January 25, 2015

... thoughts on a distressing song, the amazing Taylor Swift, and me as a teen...

Part of my commute requires me to listen out for interstate accidents and weather conditions so I kind of have to listen to local radio. And since local radio plays the same songs again and again, they get into my head. One day I’m going to do a post about Taylor Swift and how I think she’s just so darn cute… and apparently (since my friend performed during her Grammy show in 2013… he’s the clown on the tricycle by the way) she is a class act AND can actually sing! I just think she seems so darn nice! (Lots of ‘darns’ with ol’ Ms. Swift.) Plus, I remember the first time that I ever heard of her was during a 2008 MTV special where there was part of competition to escort her to a high school prom. Anyhow, THIS post isn’t about Taylor Swift. This is about Echosmith’s song “Cool Kids” (the link is for the lyrics) and why it makes me so sad.
  
The chorus goes a little like this (clears throat Me Me Me… ha, aren’t ya glad this is a blog!)

"I wish that I could be like the cool kids,
'Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in.
I wish that I could be like the cool kids, like the cool kids."

Whenever I hear the lyrics, especially the chorus, I think about how I never ever wanted to be like any of the so-called cool kids in school. What may read as a bit of arrogance, although I think it’s simply a healthy bit of self-esteem, I actually always liked being myself. I wasn’t the prettiest, smartest, thinnest, hottest…. –est, etc. and I’m still not but I still preferred being me. There will always be someone better than you in some aspect; likewise, you’ll always be better than someone else. That’s just life *shrug*.

Back to the song… The first stanza:

“She sees them walking in a straight line, that's not really her style.
And they all got the same heartbeat, but hers is falling behind.
Nothing in this world could ever bring them down.
Yeah, they're invincible, and she's just in the background.”

Oy! Did we feel like this back in the 80s and 90s?!? Was it more cool to be counter back then or is it just me?  Is this a new trend or am I living in a bubble?  I was in a group of quirky and odd misfits when I was in high school and it was amazing! I wouldn’t have changed it for a minute. We didn’t walk in a straight line in any way. There just seems to be more and more songs on the radio now about feeling different in a way that needs a bit of encouragement like it’s okay to be different.

This post doesn’t really have a conclusion… it’s just my thoughts and knowing that tomorrow when I get back in my car to make the commute, I’ll be thinking about my friends, some of whom have passed, and how we used to forgo the cafeteria tables to sit on a bit of stairs that still remind me of Q-bert. Oh and Taylor Swift would tell us to "Shake it off"... this post is becoming more and more about her :p I'm not lying! I find her adorable!

I love this picture of me so much because I remember who was sitting in the cafeteria with me circa 1989. We used to cut out pictures back then and tape them in books... they scan funny *shrug*. Plus, it's probably the only shot I have of my 16 rings I used to wear. No idea what happened to them. And OMG that's my natural hair color because I wasn't allowed to dye it in high school.

Oh and back to the Taylor Swift video! :p 

17 comments:

  1. Hey :) I have the full video of this performance. I need to get it to you. It starts from the very beginning where hes on the trike. I got it from him last year I think.

    Anyways, have you seen her newest video for Blank Space?! Its awesome! check it out if you haven't seen it yet. She plays a great crazy person =). Anyways Love this post! Love that picture of you! =) *hugS*

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    1. I sent a video to Pixie before it aired on the West Coast but it was taken down... this was the only one that I saw online.

      I think you were there when this picture was taken. Remember her? Before all the loss and sadness? She's around somewhere.

      XOXO Love you!

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  2. whats your email address? Ill try to send you the link to the one he sent to me. =) You may not be able to post it, but you can download it and keep it on your computer so you have a copy ;) that's what I did. =)
    She is around! And still gorgeous as ever ;) Love you!

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  3. I like this post, even though it reminds me of being in high school in the late 70s. I was never a cool kid OR a counter culture kid. I never fit in but I didn't stand out, either, I was just... in the background. The term 'geek' would probably have stuck, but it hadn't been invented yet!

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    1. Speaking of geek... your comment makes me want to look in the OED for the etymology of "geek"... seriously :D

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  4. In school I definitely remember being jealous of some girl whose hands were covered in rings, it looked awesome!

    I don't think I wanted to be cool, but I think I would have liked to have more permissive parents who let me do anything, like date and stuff, I probably wouldn't have been such a total social outcast then. There were times when I had not a single friend. I think I definitely acted tougher than I was at high school, but I was always a book nerd and not particularly well liked. So glad I finally found my true friends a few years ago! Not to mention my boyfriend in year 11!

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    1. Laura, sounds like you had it tough. That really sucks. Our parents really do make life easier or hard when we're teens. Sigh.

      I think my parents were mostly just afraid .I was burying several friends during my high school years... I was basically a good kid (no drugs, alcohol or sex gasp!) so they let me do pretty much everything. It also helped that my brother was always in trouble.

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  5. I don't think I ever cared about being cool, ~I just didn't want to be bullied anymore for being small, ginger and geeky. I was a goth at school when I was 16-18, and those 2 years were absolutely the best - the previous 5 had been pretty tough. I remember hearing Tori Amos singing '...with their nine inch nails, the little fascist that exists inside the heart of every nice girl...' and though, ah, that figures. The girls my mother considered nice were telling me I was worth jack behind her back. The girls I hung out with (and still do) were quirky and a little wild and taught me how to put eyeliner on (I was a late bloomer!). I never wanted to be one of the 'nice' ones.

    And yup, I've got a soft spot for Taylor as well. She seems like a pretty nice, grounded lass who turns the negatives thrown at her and turns them into pop gems. My husband cracks up every time he sees the We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together video.

    And that's such a cute picture of you :)

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    1. Hee thanks!

      I think my friends and I were never bullied because 80% of our high school graduating class knew each other from pre-school on. It's hard to pick on someone who you have known forever. At least that's my guess.

      We laugh at the TS videos too... but I like that she pokes fun at herself :)

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    2. You may have something there, I went from a lovely supportive junior school where we all knew each other from being dots to a much bigger, far more competitive senior school with intake from about 6/7 smaller schools. It was a bewildering hell.

      Then I hit university and discovered that geek boys like nerdy little red heads and my life was transformed!!!

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    3. I, too, am thankful to the geek boys of the world :)

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  6. I used to cut out photos like that too and tape them in my agenda! I for some odd reason was one of the cool kids. I stood out but everyone wanted to be friends with the girl who dyed her hair all sorts of colors. I had lots of boyfriends and one would think like was great at the top. It wasn't I hated it. I was friends with everyone not just the cool kids. I guess I started a trend because the cool kids started become friends with the unpopular ones LOL I hated that everyone knew me. Some people were jealous so I was bullied. One girl in particular made my life hell until I broke up with a boyfriend. She started dating him so I guess she was jealous. It was all so stupid. By the end of high school, I sort of disappeared into the background. I skipped a lot of classes to go read Anne Rice in the bathrooms. By my senior year, I went to a different school but lots of people hated me by then. I sort of liked it because I wasnt center of attention anymore I graduated by going to an alternative school. So yeah coming from the other side of the fence, it wasn't so great either

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    1. Female teens suck!

      It took me years to look back and realize that one of my friends was a mean girl. I'm embarrassed about that... and now she's dead so what can ya do *shrug*.

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  7. You look really happy and adorable in your photo. Seems like good times. I didn't have it too great growing up... For various reasons, I couldn't have friends. I was the bottom of the social ladder... Even the fat kid picked on me. I basically dropped out of high school and went to beauty school at 16 and straight to work after that. No regrets though... I don't think I would have survived any longer... The place sucked

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    1. I love this picture because I remember that it was the time right before my friends starting dying. My smiles look different in later pictures :-/

      I'm glad that you were able to get away. Sucks that it ended up that way but I'm glad you survived.

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  8. I know what you mean, I've always been happy being myself too. When we started high school my childhood friend fell in with the wrong crowd, who I guess were the 'cool kids' - her academic stuff went out the window and she would bully other girls. Eventually I realised all she was going to do was drag me down too so I had to stop being her friend. From then on I was a bit of a outsider but looking back the only thing I regret was how long it took me to figure it out.

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  9. Every time I hear that song I think of all the hipsters and how they all want to look alike. In the 80s all the preppy girls looked alike. I think hipsters are the new preps. In high school I certainly wasn't a cool kid. I hung out with the freaks and geeks. We had our own little group and I had a great time my high school years. A party or a concert every weekend. Never a dull moment.

    And have you seen the video of the police officer in his cruiser singing along to Taylor Swift? It's really cute. It was making the rounds on FB last week.

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