We Are The KIDS Our Parents Warned Us About

A lot of you may not know this but I have a lot of tattoos, somewhere close to 100. I fuck with most of them but there is one that I really resonate with the most. Most people will tell you that when you get a tattoo to get one that means something to you and I think that shit is dumb as hell. You should get whatever you like enough that you are willing to see it forever tattooed on you. There is one tattoo that I have that complies with the ideology of getting a tattoo that means something to you. Down the side of my leg I have a quote that ironically enough I found on Tumbler, back when that was a thing. The tattoo reads, “We Are The Kids Our Parents Warned Us About. ” When I read this quote I immediately was like, “I need this on my body for the rest of my life”. This tattoo describes so much of my life it’s crazy, but I am going to take it a step further and say that it describes many of my peer’s lives as well. My generation is a generation of misfits and doers, we look at obstacles with outside-the-box thinking not sticking to the norms of society. The peers of our parents’ generation who view the world like us are people our parents constantly warned us to not become and to stay away from as children. It’s funny because we are similar to those people but our parents still love us the same and we are even better people because of it.

As a child I grew up in a home with strict parents. They were not bad parents (quite the opposite) but they held somewhat of a short leash when it came to school and social life. They constantly reminded me of what the consequences were when someone strayed away from the straight and narrow. They told me what would happen to kids who drank, smoked, did drugs and did not go to school. They constantly enforced their “Parental Law” on me all the way through high school. So it should be of no surprise that in high school I was essentially what my generation called a “square”. A lot of my peers have had similar experiences growing up, some not so strict, but they all have had parents that at the very minimum described the kind of consequences awaited for kids who participated in those nefarious activities. This is the reason that a lot of my friends and peers did not do very much in high school. They were very school oriented with the idea that following their parents rules would lead to success.

Fast forward to college and this is where things become a little more interesting. It’s no secret that college is a very experimental time in a person’s life. Most kids are away from home for the first time and there is no real supervision. Kids, including myself, are going to take advantage of this and start experimenting with drinking and doing drugs and really contemplating what direction they want their lives to go in. [Also I feel like I should mention that when I say drugs I am not talking about the hard stuff, I simply mean weed and many of the party drugs{insert lol}. I hope y’all not out here smoking meth and crack.] Many of us will continue with this mindset and habits well after college. Now I’m not saying that we are all addicts and alcoholics, even though many of us teeter on the line (insert another lol). We have found this sort of medium where we still perform in our everyday lives trying to create a living for ourselves but as soon as 5:00 pm hit we got a drink and a blunt in our hand. I know people who did not even make it to “after college”, they decided that college was not for them and decided to pursue other options and get started on their lives early. As generations are progressing the idea of “having to go to college” is becoming old fashion. We have created a world where college is not necessary. This is the age of “LLC’s and entrepreneurship”, a world that our parents would not have even imagined when we were kids.

However, this is where the quote really takes form, because as children our parents constantly warned us of the dangers of the world. They warned us of drug use and not going to school and everything else. But MY generation has found a way to balance the world our parents have tried to shield us from with the world of becoming their own person and doing what they need to do to consider themselves successful. I mean I know people who have started businesses and wear a suit and tie 5 days out the week and the other two days well I rather not say. I mean if you know me then you can testify to some pretty insane behavior , but the point I am trying to make is that even with all the evils we as young adults participate in our parents still love us the same.. making us THE KIDS OUR PARENTS WARNED US ABOUT.

#school #generation #parents #kids #college #drugs