How has the US' community evolved: A Day in the Life

Alison Cameron
Honors American Literature
10/28/12

  A Day in the Life of the American Teenager:

         How the American Community Has Changed.

Tumbling out of bed, you walk downstairs and turn on the seven o’clock news for the weather. You know the weather  never really comes until half past seven, but it’s become such a habit to switch the television on immediately. On the fluorescent screen, a middle aged man with a blonde hairpiece babbles about some foreign policy issue that has been all over the news for the past few days; something to do with China or Cuba, one of those places. The plastic-looking newscaster drones on and on about Congress failing to come up with a solution due to the lack of bipartisanship, or something along those lines. The subsequent segment talks about the presidential debate that occurred the night before, with one of the candidates saying some persuasive garbage about America remaining on top, even in its current devastating economic situation. You watch all of this news coverage play on, unaware of what it is actually saying in your half-asleep haze. Eventually, the overly perky weather girl appears on the screen, and you finally start to pay attention.

Arriving somewhat well-fed and awake at school, you brace yourself for another day. You grumble greetings to your classmates, if they’re lucky they get  a smile. In first block AP US history, the teacher lectures the class about the foundations of America and the Founding Father's expectations. You scarcely listen, having heard the words "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" and the lowdown of the Bill of Rights too many times in your life. However, most of your classmates are taking in the lecture hook, line, and sinker. They nod and smile in agreement (well, as much as one can nod and smile at eight in the morning), even one piping up saying, " Aren't these the factors that make America the greatest country in the world?" The class listens to the teacher's answer, not even regarding the fact that everyone silently agrees that America is the greatest country in the world. Yourself included, you don't question the idea that America is on top of the world, but rather try to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room in attempt to get last night’s chemistry homework done. Amusingly, the person beside you is finishing the same worksheet, but you two don't help each other. The bell rings just as you complete the last problem. While you rush off to your next class, your fellow procrastinating classmate is stuck on that final problem.

School rambles on, you hand in your messily-completed homework and grunt at your classmates when they attempt to speak to you. Sure, you may be a bit grumpy today, but if you look around you don't see much a difference from yourself and your other classmates. Either they are half asleep, or extremely rude if anyone tries to inquire into their business. Even the teachers a lot of the time don't look too pleased if you try to talk to them about a puzzling question on that test you bombed. You also notice that if you ask them for extra help after school they start to roll their eyes, and make you feel uncomfortable that you ask questions in the first place.

You reach the cafeteria feeling completely done with the cruel hostility of high school mornings. While you munch your food silently with your friends, they blather about some british television show you've never seen, nor do you have any desire to. Finally in a better mood after eating a dry baloney sandwich, you exuberantly try to change the subject into something a bit more interesting, like that foreign policy issue you heard about on the news this morning. However, your friends barely hear you and continue talking about some doctor traveling through time in a box. You feel neglected and frustrated, so you decide to hide out in the library behind a People magazine. More so than ever, you don't want to interact with people. Questions like "what makes people so self-centered?" or "is it really that hard to lend a helping hand?" run through your mind. But through that frenzy of anger, you come to the realization that you act the same way as everyone else. You ignore the girl next to you who struggles with the same homework in your class, you barely pay attention to what any of your teachers have been saying all day, and you refuse to even watch, never mind talk about, that seemingly-idiotic-but-may-actually-be-fantastic british television show. Yes you realize your anger is coming from your peers, but you start to wonder: are you the cause of their hostility? Is your constant foul mood ruining your relationships with people? You consider the questions throughout the rest of the school day, and try to be conscience of how you act around everyone else. Maybe if you change, they will too.

When you finally get home from after school sports practice, you sit by your computer and see who's online on Facebook. You chat some acquaintances about homework and that awful Spanish teacher you two had last year, but for the most part you have no idea what to say. In fact, you rarely talk to these people face to face. But you wonder: do you ignore them, or do they ignore you? Too exhausted to answer that question, you work on your huge amounts of homework that's due the next day. Despite your efforts, you fall asleep in your chemistry textbook at around one in the morning. You wake up in front of the computer screen, seeing that you have five emails from two different colleges and three emails from your teachers about some essay or lab that's due in a week. You rub your eyes, pick up your pencil, and start to read about atomic particles. Unknown to you, the cycle of the day of isolation and bitterness begins again as you turn on the news and vaguely listen to the report about the settlement between the US and China. Or was it Cuba?