It seems like everybody is dead-set on discouraging me from doing the right things.

[otherlander]

My boyfriend, my parents, even the anarchists.

Like the other day. I got lost in New Brunswick and I had to ask a woman how to get back to the center of town. And she was a prostitute. And I can't tell my parents this because they'd tell me not to talk to prostitutes. Now, I know that the right thing to do is to treat people equally regardless of their profession as long as their profession doesn't involve hurting people or animals, but they would discourage me from doing this.

And the other day I was talking to my boyfriend about my thoughts on turning eighteen soon. And how, when my grandfather was my age, he was fighting fascists in Itally, this being the time of WWII, and risking his life for the sake of a more free world. And what am I doing? Just going to college. And he said, "Well, that's what you're SUPPOSED to be doing." (:grr:) I know I should be doing more, but he would just tell me to keep doing what I'm doing now.

And my parents (again). They keep wanting to buy stuff for me like a dry-erase board and a digital recording device and other crap that's made in China. And I don't want to financially support Chinese sweatshops, especially when it's stuff I don't NEED. But they're just like, "Oh, don't worry about that." WTF?

And the anarchists. I thought that, of all people, they would encourage me to change the way I was living and act more ethically. But instead, they just applaud me for being AWARE of what's going on in the world and don't say I should do anything else. Which really surprised me.

I need to start hanging out with different people, I think.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. You're 17, right?

Time for you to go off to college and begin to expand your horizons. Be thankful that you don't have to go into the military and fight fascism in Italy - that was your grandfather's life - it is not yours.

Enough with the parents. Get your own life. Make your new college friends. Enjoy a broad view of the world that you have never had before.

Get your education. Find a whole new world.

Take responsibility for all of it, since it's your life.

And have fun.