Let's Take, A Long Talk

It's Day 4 of Lil' Sis' visit, and I've realized something:

Damn, teenagers are a mess.

I'd like to think I wasn't as delusional and ridiculous as today's teens, but upon further review...I'm not really sure.

I know I had my head in the clouds. I had no real concept of what things cost. I had unrealistic expectations of what the world was really like. I could watch BET for 26 hours straight without blinking. I could perhaps go 46 hours straight talking on the telephone. I set a world record for three-way phone calls. I thought anybody who was between 18-21 was the shit, but anyone over 21 just didn't get it.

That's exactly how my Lil' Sis is.

YIKES.

Probing a teen mind is like staring out into the darkness in the thick of the night. You can't see a thing. You're sort of afraid to charge in there because you're not sure what's there.

My Lil' Sis is a typical, black, inner-city kid -- which be good and bad. She is over-influenced by BET, is glued to her cellphone and MP3 player, but not her textbooks, wants a car but ain't go no money or a job, and is surrounded by people who enable a culture of failure.

Trying to wade through those murky waters is a bitch. Every question is met with a shrug. Or, "I don't know." Teenagers look at everybody like they're so uncool and pointless. They just brood for no fucking reason at all. I had to think...did I give off all that attitude when I was 17? I think I may have been too petrified by my mother's backhand to have anything but a smile on my face.

I asked my sister why she was always grimming people.

She shrugged. She has no idea. She just likes to grim.

I've come to the conclusion teenagers are just plain crazy. Like my mother said, they were dropped on this planet and their sole purpose is to act miserable when they have, perhaps, the best deal of all. I didn't realize when I was 17 that life without bills is a wonderful thing. I don't know what happens, but as soon as you turn 18, you start getting shit in the mail with a due date. I didn't know until after I got out of college that ages 15-18 were the greatest. NO BILLS. Makes a huge difference.

My biggest problem with my Lil' Sis is lack of work ethic. Give you a perfect example. She's staying in one of the spare rooms at the front of the house. Now, instead of walking back 10 or 12 feet to my room or office, this lil' heffa will send me a text.

WTF?

I told her I'm not answering any of her text messages when she's right in the damn house! Her response: I didn't feel like getting up.

Feel like? WTF?

I couldn't have been that crazy. I refuse to believe that.

Anyway, I feel as if a robot with no instructions and no common sense has been dropped right in my house. I know I sound like how my mother sounded and how her mother sounded, and how all mothers sounded, but...

THESE KIDS HAVE LOST THEIR DAMN MINDS!!