Back in the Day

Back in the day, when I was young…sometimes I do forget while talking to the teens how I am old, *ahem, older than them so much so as they do not react when I make a reference to a certain actor/musician/group or someone from my day. Just because your name reminds me of a r&b singer from the 90s, does not necessarily mean that you will know who the hell that person is because you weren’t born yet. I can’t believe just how many times a teen stares at me when I try to make a reference to a singer, and all I get is a courtesy smile and giggle. I know that courtesy laugh- it is just because you are trying to be nice. You can't fool me! I do that all the time!

Anyways, I may have to start watching, listening, reading more of what teens do because otherwise we are not going to be able to relate. I need to step up my game this year. Oh, games is another one I need to start doing more.

Another thing I notice is that I keep telling myself, "I never acted like that when I was that age?" Mostly this thought enters after I have just finished scolding a teen whom I saw from the corner of my eye throw an empty coffee cup across the room, and miss the trash can. Respect is something that is clearly not in this child's vocabulary, so I made sure he learned that hard lesson from me. That single incident happened over a month ago, and everyday I go to work I have seen this one teen and I always refer to him as the "coffee cup guy" and I make sure to call him that in front of his friends, who just happens to be girls, and who laugh because they don't understand why I keep calling him coffee cup guy. One time, I even asked if he wanted to star in a tv show since he struck me as an attention grabbing type of individual. He denied that he liked attention, and promised me he would never do that again, ever. Nowadays, we say hello, and ask how we are doing, and I learned his name over time. But it is just too much fun calling him coffee cup guy, and I don't think he minds much...anymore.

International Games Day

International Games Day is here! We had not just one, but TWO days of game playing for all teens. We had a bunch of card games, video games, board games, online gaming happening in three different locations, and all staffed by the community center staff, TLAB teens and myself. We had snacks to refuel. We had prizes raffled. It was lots of marketing, because it never was done here before, and I was determined to get new teens to come to this event.

On day one, I was dragged by the teens to play Just Dance 2015, one of the Xbox One kinect games. I was horrible. The girls were good, and I was trying to keep up, but I could not understand the timing, even though I do like playing rhythm games with an actual controller. So your body is the controller, which I’ve never done before, but some of the girls had and were being very nice to me and each other, which was good to see.

The teens were so supportive about my lack of skills, and I was just hoping not to mess them up, or step on their toes because there were 6 of us in a line looking at the same projector screen. The song they chose was Katy Perry's Dark Horse, which I know the song, but damn that was hard to dance to! I kept saying, What is going on?! I thanked one of the TLAB teens for helping me try something new.