So I’m Old…

On Tuesday, while teaching some new vocabulary about different music genres to the SoulSuckingTeenagers, we came across grunge. “So what’s grunge?” I ask. I am rewarded with blankly expectant looks.
“You know, grunge? Like Nirvana? Wait… what year were you guys born?” (blank stares) One girl finally responds “1994.”
“Oh… that’s the year Kurt Cobain killed himself. Interesting. I have solid memories of the year 1994. I’m… old. That’s… cool.”
Flash to today with the GoodButQuietTeenagers (who I THOUGHT were 16+ years old…). I’m still vaguely gobsmacked (yeah, I’m bringing that word back) by the age thing (I know, I know, wait until I’m REALLY old… but I’m a DECADE older than these kids! There’s a word I can use to avoid using numerals! It’s that much time!). We covered the difference between the present perfect and the simple past (and I made them laugh! Like out loud! Multiple times! I should take this act on the road!), and in their homework they are required to write stories about things that “have happened” since certain points in their lives. One girl then points out the problem with question number one (“What significant changes have happened in your life since you were thirteen.”)- “We’re only fourteen… sooo…?”
Gob. Smacked. “Well, do the best you can, I suppose… ‘nothing has happened since I was thirteen?’” Moving on, I relate the story of the SoulSuckers and 1994… at which point the girls point out that they, too, were born in 1994… and I feel awkward and old. Also inept at math, but that is nothing new.

The good news is that this answers some questions I’ve been kicking around my head about the material I want to use with them (NO to rap lyrics, NO to the “American Apparel” article with direct quotes from the “too sexy for this tank top and your sexual harassment lawsuits” CEO, and NO to TV shows/ Movies that 16 or 17 year olds could handle, but that I will not endure the phone calls for if I show them to 14-15 year olds.), so that’s good.

In other news, I have wonderful friends on both sides of the Atlantic, my favorite earrings are still MIA after a thorough apartment cleaning, I tallied up my time sheet for the month and will be a high roller on pay day (relatively speaking), and am doing my best to discourage the back spasm that is threatening my lower back. Tomorrow is Thursday, which means the day without teenagers (or children, apparently) and thus, a day without stories… unless the cat does something!