One whole foot of hair. It went from my waist to my shoulders.

I worked (past tense) at a restaurant. The only coworkers that noticed were the ones I clued in that I planned to cut it.

My students I taught whilst student teaching, then substitute teaching, saw me for the first time this summer today. They commented on it immediately, after not seeing the state of my hair for four months.

It’s hair. It’s stupid, it’s small, it’s insignificant. It burns and it grows back. It’s a detail.

But my coworkers that summer, the people I worked with almost daily, didn’t notice, and a group of 17-year-olds did.

Teenage kids get a bad rap for no reason. Society likes to attack them for the way they dress, adorn their bodies and speak. The music they listen to, the books they read and the shoes they wear are scorned. Some older generations like to complain that “kids today” are “unappreciative” of the opportunities they have, and that they “have it so much easier” than themselves.

It isn’t any easier to live in this world now. It’s expected of a person to attain a college degree—and not just an associates, but a four year degree—to get a decent job…and to do that, most people have to either work multiple jobs simultaneously, or pay for years upon years of student loans.

Political correctness is another point of contention. Fifty years ago, society was free to say a lot more than it is now. We might have freedom of speech guaranteed constitutionally, but it is better labeled “responsibility” of speech. You have the power to say whatever you want now, except you can’t offend anyone. That is intense pressure.

And there’s that little test all kids feel they are judged upon—the ACTs. Mind and soul-crushing pressure is applied as students prepare for this standardized test that did not exist when many naysayers attended high school.

This isn’t to mention fifty more years of history, fifty more years of scientific innovation, fifty more years of literature, and so on.

This isn’t to say kids have it harder right now; they just have it different. Maybe the chores they have to do aren’t as physically laborious, but their homework load has multiplied, and their scholarly expectations have as well.

People say kids are out of touch. They say they’re self-absorbed, lack drive and are apathetic.

Those people don’t take the time to get to know they kids they ridicule. They’re actually more considerate than alleged “adults.”

   but it’s your job to control the accelerator, gear stick, and radio.

! Gaga > Antebellum