Childhood Sucks!

 Out of the blue, one of my friends from Secondary school days started to talk to me about 'the time when we were young and carefree'. Back when we were in that tropical Saint-Trinians' of repressed lesbian wardens and horny boyish girls all just coming of age. It was a school where severe haircuts were part of the uniform, and they took being in the Lord's military most seriously.

Out on the Beach

(disclaimer: I was 21 at this point)

Childhood is one of those topics I have a very strong opinion on, mostly because I had a rather horrible time of it. In the attempt to get ADHD drugs 2 semesters ago, I went to see the psychiatrist, and she made me draw a chart of the relative happiness of my life throughout the years. Apparently ADHD sufferers generally rate themselves as being particularly unhappy from the ages of 7-16, or during the course of compulsory education. Not really surprising.

Kim started going on about the 'good old days', and while I think it's kind of sweet and romantic in a way to hang on to the past, I can't sympathize. Those days were a time of utter confusion and terror, of being almost completely incapable of changing your situation if you didn't like the situation you were in, your neck hanging on a stupid exam for a subject you didn't care for because it was taught by idiots that couldn't teach and treated you like shit and spanked you in front of everybody (I didn't have a problem with that one actually). It was a time of no freedom, no money, no privacy to fuck boys (although lesbianism was rampant and free so that made it quite alright), and worse of all, no air-conditioning, and no internet! (I got it at 13, but usage was strictly restricted. Sucks to be first-born, seriously, you get all the shit.)

Childhood was positively a nightmare. I just wanted to grow up and be rid of it. Kim said it was a 'carefree' time. Honestly, where the hell did that myth come from? You are far from free as a child, you're the puppet of all these other bigger, more powerful people that all have their own will, which is far stronger than yours. They know how to manipulate your mind, and when they can't do that they can always resort to force. Gee. Carefree. Sure.