Rabbit in a time bubble
A friend and I were recently discussing this phenomenon, and anyone out there who is a younger sibling in a large family is welcome to chime in and let me know if you find this to be true as well.
Do your older siblings see you as being in a time warp? Still a child, or sullen teen, with the same tastes, likes, dislikes, attitudes, capabilities, that you had when you were 11? As though you have never grown up, changed, developed different tastes, likes, dislikes, attitudes, capabilities? As the same person you were when they left home? As though that last vision of you as the truck with their school necessities, furniture, clothes, books, etc., backed down the driveway for the drive to college is the picture of you they have now?
I am the youngest in a family of seven children. Most my childhood memories related to my older siblings are of seeing them go to school, move away, get on with their lives, while I was still having my developing years at home, until it was time for me to go away to school and build my own life. My oldest brother went to college when I was six, and the rest left in a steady stream every few years or so, until my last few years at home, it was just me, my mother and grandmother in the house.
My older siblings, I think, also like to think of me as the stereotypical "spoiled youngest" of the family, which may have been true when I was little, but doesn't really bear out now. I mean, for Chrissakes, I've been independent, working, paying my own rent, with only the occasional loans or help from anyone since the age of 19. (Sure, once in a while I've needed a loan to pay security deposits or first/last months rent on new apartments, or the occasional tuition bill, paid back immediately upon receipt of a student loan or in installments on the bigger amounts.) But I've also laid out the occasional loan to one of my siblings, when I was flush from a summer spent working two jobs, or having received a profit sharing check from some retail job or something... I really feel that though I've been one of America's working poor, I've relied on very little help from anyone, and worked pretty damn hard to enjoy life in an expensive urban locale.
I've lived at least 2 hours away from any sibling or other family member since the age of 18, in my first year of college, carving out a life for myself in Boston, where I am the only representative of my formidable family, except for one cousin, whom I never see. (We move in very different circles and he's a good 5-6 years older than me anyway...)
Anyway, I just think it's an interesting phenomenon that even though I've been at the business of growing up and developing, to them, I'm STILL 11. To them, I've never outgrown Star Wars, my obsession with Pete Townshend, wanting to be a S.W.A.T. cop, wanting to be a rock star, keg parties, etc., etc, etc.
Well, I have. And the little obsessions I have now? I'll out grow those, too. Pay attention. Tomorrow, I'll be a totally different "little shit" from the one you think you know.
And now for something completely different: My second Bluntcogs strip is up. Go and look and tell me it's funny, or I'll glass you.
Do your older siblings see you as being in a time warp? Still a child, or sullen teen, with the same tastes, likes, dislikes, attitudes, capabilities, that you had when you were 11? As though you have never grown up, changed, developed different tastes, likes, dislikes, attitudes, capabilities? As the same person you were when they left home? As though that last vision of you as the truck with their school necessities, furniture, clothes, books, etc., backed down the driveway for the drive to college is the picture of you they have now?
I am the youngest in a family of seven children. Most my childhood memories related to my older siblings are of seeing them go to school, move away, get on with their lives, while I was still having my developing years at home, until it was time for me to go away to school and build my own life. My oldest brother went to college when I was six, and the rest left in a steady stream every few years or so, until my last few years at home, it was just me, my mother and grandmother in the house.
My older siblings, I think, also like to think of me as the stereotypical "spoiled youngest" of the family, which may have been true when I was little, but doesn't really bear out now. I mean, for Chrissakes, I've been independent, working, paying my own rent, with only the occasional loans or help from anyone since the age of 19. (Sure, once in a while I've needed a loan to pay security deposits or first/last months rent on new apartments, or the occasional tuition bill, paid back immediately upon receipt of a student loan or in installments on the bigger amounts.) But I've also laid out the occasional loan to one of my siblings, when I was flush from a summer spent working two jobs, or having received a profit sharing check from some retail job or something... I really feel that though I've been one of America's working poor, I've relied on very little help from anyone, and worked pretty damn hard to enjoy life in an expensive urban locale.
I've lived at least 2 hours away from any sibling or other family member since the age of 18, in my first year of college, carving out a life for myself in Boston, where I am the only representative of my formidable family, except for one cousin, whom I never see. (We move in very different circles and he's a good 5-6 years older than me anyway...)
Anyway, I just think it's an interesting phenomenon that even though I've been at the business of growing up and developing, to them, I'm STILL 11. To them, I've never outgrown Star Wars, my obsession with Pete Townshend, wanting to be a S.W.A.T. cop, wanting to be a rock star, keg parties, etc., etc, etc.
Well, I have. And the little obsessions I have now? I'll out grow those, too. Pay attention. Tomorrow, I'll be a totally different "little shit" from the one you think you know.
SO FUCKING STAY AWAKE.
And now for something completely different: My second Bluntcogs strip is up. Go and look and tell me it's funny, or I'll glass you.
posted by Andraste at 2:46 PM
3 Comments:
I'm the elder of two siblings, Andraste, but I too feel like I'm in that time warp. Unlike you, though, I've never outgrown Star Wars, despite George Lucas's recent efforts to tarnish my memories of the original films.
And yes, your Blunt Cogs script is great, so save that glass for someone else.
That's just it, FE, I loved the original movies. Couldn't get enough of those original characters, the fun of it all, the innocence... and all that...and these prequels...BO-RING!
Fuck-in-capital-A...George, you owe the world a number of apologies for those 3 prequels...especially after making us wait till we were all paunchy and grey haired to release them...fucker! It's like Palpatine says to Yoda: "your arrogance has made you blind"
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