Christmas Cheers

With it being party season and free flowly drink I feel like I have to speak about the New Zealand drinking culture...

It sucks basically. People drink too much and get wasted and then laugh about it the next day and those that can "handle their drink" are seen as heroes of the party. *cough*LOSERS*cough* What's even worse is that we are encouraged to drink early... Everyone who does it are seen as "cool" and teens that don't choose to drink are "losers". In MY opinion I feel that even though we know the effects and consquences of drinking alcohol to excessd we fail to register it because it is so embeded into our psyche. I think it's retarded... but that's not going to stop me trying it. For some reason I know it's wrong and completely idiotic but I want to try it because it's so fucking retarded... You kinda have to be in my head to understand that statement. If you were on the bus ride home last night you'd understand.

I liked you because of your looks but I love you because of who you are...

Love. The feeling is unlike anything that has ever been experienced. The only things that come close are drugs that last only an instant compared to love and leave you worse for wear.... I believe that social conditions are programmed to believe that a decent boyfriend must be cute/hot/good looking. We are such a shallow community.

This has been observed from two different groups of people who are independent of their actions (i.e. the two groups did not know of each others actions) but are characteristic of boys and girls I know.

Group 1: Rebecca and Paula… At the international soccer game they were checking out and commenting on boys of the other teams. Paula then went to one of these players and got their phone number. Contact after this has followed.

Group 2: Johan, John and Dion… From the back of the English class they observed a pretty yr 10 and discussed her looks before going outside to get her attention.

My conclusion from these two observations is that only those who are attractive are desirable as boyfriend/girlfriend.

As shallow as it sounds it is physical attraction that determines whether friends can turn into more than friends. I feel that everyone could be compatible as individuals get along with one another and it is physical attraction that is the true attraction between a couple. For example my friend Larry from intermediate only decided he like Helen after mufti day. Perfect example of what I mean as up until that point he only saw her as a friend. The actions that he thought were signs of affection were only innocent as far as I know.

The sad thing about this social situation is that no one is immune. If someone who you found very physically attractive fell for you, you know you would fall for them… initially, after all just physical attraction cannot make a relationship it is very rare for a relationship to being.

Educators merit a greater remuneration

Teachers: can't live with them, can't learn without them. They are the topic of many bitch sessions between students around the school but really do they deserve such treatment? Shouldn't we be handing them awards, patting them on the back and thanking them for what they have done for us? After all they have armed us with the greatest power of all: knowledge. Knowledge is power. And another saying goes: children are the future, so how does the government repay those who will ensure in a better New Zealand tomorrow? No trophies or shiny certificates but with substandard wages that and what seems to be a cold shoulder to those who ask for more.

College teachers recently had a union meeting to discuss such issues (which meant we had a half day-yay!) not surprisingly not many students took much interest in the actual content of the meeting, they were just hoping that the teachers would go on strike like they did in April 2002 so we wouldn't have to go to school. This however is improbable which I found out after a discussion with my school's principal and my French class.

It was a pleasant surprise to find that Mr. Leach was going to be the reliever for my first period French class. Being the nice man he is he chatted with us about numerous subjects and the natural flow of conversation brought us to the topic of teacher's wages. He recalled when he first started teacher some 30 odd years ago that a teacher fresh from teacher's college got a pretty decent pay and once the teacher got to the highest level of teaching about ten years later, they were paid the same as a backbencher in parliament. It safe to say that this is no longer the same today as a teacher's wages has gone down and one of parliament’s benchwarmers gets a lot more. He said that a new high school teacher is paid the same wages as a new police officer. Of course he, and so do the rest of us, respects and appreciates the job that our police force do for us but this is comparing doing three years of uni and one year of teacher's college to a six week course.

Are teachers worth as much as police officers? Some may say that a police officer is a better contribution to society as they provide protection and safety of the community but I beg to differ.

The proverb knowledge is power basically speaks for itself. By learning and knowing you are able to understand the world around you and know where you want to fit yourself into it. By getting the biggest picture of it you can see where you want to go and what you want to do. This is what teachers provide us with. Although lots of what we learn can't be directly applied to real life situations (like being able to draw a parabola, seriously who uses this?) it allows us to see that there is so much more out there. How does this contribute to society? Teachers are an important part of a students life, whether we like it or not, and aid in shaping us into the people we will become. Because teachers aren't evil (well most aren't) they do not intentionally negatively influence their students to become bad people. Those who fall through the gap and miss the opportunities that education gives them can find themselves facing the long arm of the law. Police officers are merely the band-aid to the graze of society's criminals where as teachers are the knee-pads that prevent the injury. Where education is high crime is low and vice versa. Should we be investing in knee-pads or a packet of plasters?

If the government were to spend more money on teachers there would be a smaller need for police officers. Better educations lead to better futures. I believe high quality teachers are vital part of our society and should be paid in proportion to the job they do for us. In 2002 the high school teachers of New Zealand went on strike to make the government listen to their request for a bigger paycheck but it's obvious that they aren't listening as it is an issue that is still being raised today in 2007.

Just 'cos I don't f**k everything that has a cock...

It was earlier this week that my younger sister, who is 15, found herself in health class in a doing group work with people she doesn't really like. They had a visit from the people at Family Planning! They were talking about safe sex and contraception, as you do, and she realised that all the other girls in her group were on The Pill.... Hm. She finished this ancedote with "Just 'cos I don't fuck everything with a cock." This made me laugh, then it got me thinking.

Can teenagers have a healthy sex life?

To be honest this isn't my question. I stole it off the news from a couple of months ago when the question was posed by someone who obviously studies teenager's sex lives. They answered with: Yes. As a teen I think No.

Personally the thought of two people rubbing their bits together repulses me slightly especially when these two people barely know the other. I can barely hold a conversation with someone I don't know let alone touch them, and when I mean touch them I mean like pat them on the shoulder so you can see why the thought of casual sex grosses me out. What I find hard to believe is that sex is a part of teen's lives now. No, wait. I can believe it, I just don't know how they don't think sex is a big deal. No, wait. I do know how sex can be seen as normal.

I once read this book (fictional), the name of which completely escapes me, about a guy doing a project about sex for a science competition in which he interviews all these people to find out what their experiences were like. The people he interviewed saw that the first time having sex was like immunisation shot * (well that's the vibe I was getting when he interviewed his mother.). He wanted his best friend (who was a girl) to have sex with him so he could find out what it was like and he said he would pay her for being a big part of the film but I think something happened and they didn't end up doing it. The only character I didn't really believe was the "hot popular girl" for the following reasons: "Hot popular girl" fell in love with the protagonist "geeky" guy, she had posters of scientist like Einstein and Newton (if I remember correctly) on her bedroom wall and lastly she TALKED to these posters about "geeky" guy... WHAT?! Let's digress from the topic of this post.
Who has posters of scientists on their walls??? Not even I or my friends, who are perceived as very sciency, have posters of scientist on their walls. One: Where do you get these posters from? It's not like they have Mary Curie in the posters rack at Sounds. Two: Why would you want these posters? It's not like they were very interesting to look at. Three: She's the "hot popular girl"... I think that's enough said.

I remember when I was in yr 8 there was a boy in my class who said that couldn't wait until he was 16 so that he could go to a party and have sex with a random hot chick. His mother had him when she was 16 he boasted. I can see where he got his eagerness from.

What was I saying again? Casual sex and teenagers. Well in my opinion, even though I haven't really expressed it well, I think that teenagers today are growing up twice as fast as they have in previous years. This has been brought on by our constant communication with each other and the global community as well as becoming aware of adult behaviours at a young age through TV. Though this may bring many good points such as being able to have vaild opinions on important issues I don't think that having casual sex is one of those good points. How can sex be healthy for teenagers when it can mess people up? Of course the obvious STD/Is you can get from sleeping around can screw you up but there are also the social implications. You are labeled a slut/whore/player for sleeping around and can lose friendships and relationships through doing so. I think it's stupid to cause trouble and having sex with random people is definitely something that causes trouble. There's a reason we have sex and that is to make babies. So I think it's a stupid idea to play with fire unless you want to get burnt.

I haven't even really begun on this topic. I will post something else later. Keep an eye out.

*Sorry that sentence doesn't really make sense.

Procrastinators: Leaders of Tomorrow

*Novia stands up* Hi everyone my name is Novia. Hi Novia. I admit that I'm a procrastinator.

I like to think that I like enjoying life and enjoying often doesn't envolve homework or really any work that doesn't provide a reward. I fail to see the reward in doing homework. To be honest there really isn't a reward in doing homework except the long term reward of understanding the work better which in turn will aid you in doing exams at the end of the year. In fact the only reason I do homework is the fear of being punished by my teachers... That was a lie. I want to achieve well in my school but I am really lazy... That was kind of a lie too, when I want to be I can be a really really hard worker. This is the truth: I will enjoy now and save the work for later.

You know this year, 2007 my Yr 12, I feel like I haven't worked nearly hard enough. I don't know how I'm going to do Yr 13 or even University. Throughout my life I've always been a bright child, doing really well in general exams etc... but now that we actually have to work for my marks I feel like my brain powers are fading. Is it because they are fading or is it because I was never as smart as I thought I was? Perhaps I'm just not putting in the hard yards. I pick the latter as to why I'm not achieving like I should be. I hate the fact that I don't "get things" anymore.

I partially blame the New Zealand schooling system. Other countries start at a later age and use the time more efficiently not procrastinating teaching their kids how to draw hyperbolas and understand circluar mechanics. I've pinpointed the exact point in which New Zealand fails to use any time to teach their children anything. INTERMEDIATE. I don't think I really learnt anything in Yr 7 and 8. That was a lie, I did learn things but it's not like we were constantly learning. We spent most of the time outside. I guess that they want to give us as much outdoor time before we are caged in the classroom for the next 5 years. It wasn't very helpful, I'd rather be smarter than fitter, 'cos let's face it, I never really benefited from outdoor activity. I didn't even know how to run properly until I was 15, as in run without stopping for something like cross-country.

The next people I blame are the people who run the TV stations. Yes, I'm smarter than the average teenager who watchers 4 hours of TV a day but I would be much smarter if I didn't watch so much. I can't really stop now, I'm pretty much hooked and to take it away would only induce anger and stress, classic signs of withdrawal symptoms. If I spent that much time going over work and learning like I really should then I would be like ultimate-genius-brainy. I don't so I'm not.

Then of course I blame myself as these are choices that I have made as a fully informed and aware teenager of today. My parents have told me that I shouldn't watch so much TV and in front of everyone reading this blog I'm going to take an oath. I, Novia Ng, will watch only 1 hour of TV per day starting Monday 23 July. I also promise to not procrastinate, I promise not to procrastinate, I promise not to procrastinate. Ok. Everyone who is a witness to my oath is allowed to punish me in any way they feel necessary when I do not follow my oath/faithful to my promise.

This means that I'm going to writing in here once every 2 weeks!!

License To Kill

So you’ve just turned 15, you’re enjoying your birthday, and you have been a teenager for a whole two years. You got some awesome presents for your birthday including that PS3 you wanted and had a wicked party with your friends, and tomorrow it all gets better, tomorrow you are booked in to sit your Learner Drivers License test.

$79 later you’re holding that yellow slip that says you can now drive a car legally if you have your ‘L’ plates displayed and someone with a Full License for two years is sitting in the passenger seat. You can even take passengers in the back of the car.

6 Months Later…

Yes like a movie we have now jumped six months into the future (something has even happened in ‘Lost’ so you know it has been a while) and now $88.20 later you can drive by yourself between 5am and 10pm. This is where I believe things start to go horribly wrong.

Let me start by saying a few people are going to disagree with this including some of my fellow bloggers but I personally believe the driving age is too young. At the age of 15, yes 15, under current New Zealand law you can drive a vehicle on your own anywhere you want. Hell you can even have 30mg of alcohol per/100ml of blood in your body (albeit that’s not much). Does anyone else think this is crazy? And I’m not talking price of fuel crazy, I’m talking G.W Bush crazy.

At the age of 15 you are not legal to; have sex, drink alcohol (without parent guidance), smoke, vote, get married or even leave home. However we are allowed to drive a vehicle up to 100km/h with (very minor) alcohol in our body.  That just does not sit right with me. The Government obviously believes we’re not intelligent enough at that age to contribute a worthwhile vote to the elections but we are however responsible and intelligent enough to drive and risk others and our own lives.

Things also get worse from this point, I’m not going to go into too in depth into the matter right now, but suffice to say if you do your ‘Defensive Driving Course’ at the right time you can hold a full license at the age of 16! So at 16 you can drive any time of day without guidance and with as many passengers as your car can hold and it’s perfectly legal. Scared yet?

Personally I strongly believe we need to up the driving age. We are simply too young and sadly quite often too irresponsible at that point in our lives to risk lives of everyone around us. Although I might be completely wrong. What are your thoughts on the driving age in New Zealand and around the world?

Then again I'm sure we're all 100% mature, responsible and reliable at the age of 15... Yeah right.

**Disclaimer - I already own a full license and have for almost two years, so I might be a bit biased.

Life's percentage mass: 10% what happens, 90% how you react.

There's a saying (which I stole from those people that came and performed at our school from Excel [hahaha Windows Excel]) which goes: Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

Normally when you hear this type of thing you allow it to travel through one ear and out the other barely waving to your brain as it passes through. That's what I would have normally done as I dislike the clichéd "We are here to teach you a lesson" performances that are held our school annually but there was something about this proverb that stuck in my head.
"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react." When I heard it I thought how true is that? So many of life's puny problems would have been solved if people had just reacted in a matter more reasonable than what they did. This leads me to TEENS of course, as this is what this blog is all about, TEENS.

Doesn't it make you sigh just hearing the words "teen" and "problem" in the same sentence? Anyway, as us Teens are full of hormones and the unrealistic ideal of what reality is which have brought on by TV and Girlfriend Magazine (so they say), it's not uncommon to find a situation which we don't over-blow. Number one on this list of over-blown situations is friendships and relationships problems. Friendships and relationships are the subject of many a gossip session. For example: The fact that she slept with his best mate just to get back at her ex. Although it's just absolutely fascinating to listen to these whispering campaigns, I find myself saying “Double-You-Tee-Eff. This is retarded. Why do people drag themselves into these situations? What was she thinking?”

She probably wasn’t thinking. If you are heart-broken the first thing you want to do is get revenge on the breaker but the last thing you want to do is cause more pain to yourself so why did you go and sleep with his friend. Now everyone is calling you a whore and you feel worse than before. Why didn’t you just let it go? Let him break your heart because as Justin says: What goes around comes around. Put it in perspective: Although you feel like your heart is in a million pieces it will be nothing but a distant memory when you’re celebrating your 20^th Wedding Anniversary with your husband… of 20 years.

Btw, that example was totally fake. But this one is real: A girl I am going to name Ashlee is angry at her ex who I will name Pete (name changes, thanks to Mona's suggestion. HAHAHA.) and his friend who is a girl, Lindsey. So Ashlee is angry at the fact that Lindsey keeps saying that she looks like a boy and being a "bitch" to her for no apparent reason. In my opinion I don't see any reason for this type of behaviour. Btw, there has been "something" between Pete and Lindsey so it's more like "friends" as opposed to friends. Anyway they are in a play and there is a prop, a hand bag, which Lindsey normally uses and has put a couple of her own things in there but Ashlee needs it for one of the scenes she is in. She looks through it finding nothing particulary interesting. Lindsey tells her to stop looking through her "things" if gum and a mirror count as things and turns back talking to Pete and pulls the finger when Sarah isn't looking, once again, in my opinion, for no apparent reason. Ashlee is told by another actor that Lindsey just did this and Ashlee asks if she did. Lindsey laughs it off, guiltly but with no hint of fear. (See how interesting that was to read?) PROBLEM: Lindsey is a bitch to Ashlee. SOLUTION: Don't be a bitch to her. In my world you are only ever allowed to be a bitch to someone if they are a bitch to you, she hasn't been a bitch to you as far as I know. PROBLEM: Lindsey had a problem with Sarah looking through her things. SOLUTION: Not care. It's gum and a mirror in a bag that isn't even yours. PROBLEM: Lindsey flipped her the bird. SOLUTION: Keep your fingers together, release your anger another way. I find cleaning my desk/cleaning in general a great way to release anger. PROBLEM: Ashlee asked Lindsey if she gave her the finger which led to more anger on Lindsey's behalf. SOLUTION: You don't need to know. What would you do with the knowledge? Store it in the "Reasons I hate Lindsey" jar? Whats more, why would you want to know? You already don't like her so why would you even want to talk to her?

In my opinion the relationships we have now as teenagers are just practices for the real relationships we have when we are adults. It’s no surprise that people have complicated adult relationships when as teenagers our relationships are expected to be over-complicated and full of problems. It’s like a rule. You aren’t in a relationship unless you’ve had an argument. Well that’s how I feel because all I hear about in terms of boyfriend/girlfriends is the problems they are having. I have kept my life fairly trouble-free by not pissing too many people off and putting things in perspective. If I have a fight with my parents no matter how angry I am at them I always think about how lucky I am to have them and no matter how many times I’m pissed off by my friends I always think of how great they are.

It’s not a big deal unless you make it a big deal.

Do something about it

It always frustrates me when people complain that something "sucks", is "gay", "lame" or that it could have been better, yet they weren't involved. If you can't be bothered to stand up and do something about it, then with all due respect, shut up and sit down.

At school you see a lot of this. A significant amount of effort is put into organizing something, a game at an assembly, an entry for the school choir competition or an inter-class basketball competition. A heck of a lot of effort is put into organizing these events, only to have someone (usually a group of people) say that it "sucked."

A couple of examples:

That game was soo lame, we always play fluffy bunnies why don't you do something different next time.
I'm sorry, what would you prefer to play next time.
I dunno, something better

Well thanks. I'm glad you were so helpful.

Why'd you sing that song, it completely sucked.
If you joined the choir and attended the meetings then you could have helped picking the song.
Choir is lame.
Well maybe next year you could join and we could make it something better, that you think more people would enjoy.
Nah.

So you aren't willing to help choose and perform the song, but you're more than willing to bag the song choice and the performance - again, thanks

Why did we have a basketball competition this year, we had one last year.
The people who organized the competition liked basketball. Maybe next year you could help organize the inter-class sports competition and then help choose a different sport.
Scratch that!

If you aren't willing to change things, why do you think they will - or even should- change.

You notice that the people who complain are usually the people who weren't there when the decision was being made, the people who couldn't be bothered to be part of organizing the event -or even taking part. When you suggest that they take part they give you a look that suggests you have a mental illness or give some slack excuse for not joining.

I feel that if you aren't willing to organize the event, or even take part in the event, then you have no right to voice your opinion. If you tried joining the organizing committees and trying to make a change, putting some effort and work behind your opinions then you might see change. The people who organize events get to make the decisions. This means they get to do what they feel is best, what they enjoy. If everyone who put their hands up for organizing the inter-class sports competition play basketball then expect a basketball tournament. They could be bothered to stand up and do something about implementing what they wanted.

Maybe if you do the same, someone will listen.

Looking for outspoken teens

Welcome to Proudly Speaking Out. We are a bunch of teenagers who have opinions and ideas about current issues, be they politics, ethics or just cultural.

Please stay around, subscribe to our feed and bask in the goodness that is the teenager's mind :)

Looking for more writers

I'm looking for some outspoken teens all over the globe to help contribute to "Proudly Speaking Out." You need to be passionate about news and what's going on at the moment or current issues such as abortion, the war in Iraq or just a new law being passed lowering (or raising) the drinking age in your country.

You will need to have good spelling and grammar (in English) and would need to put aside a couple of hours a week to write at least one good post about an important issue.

So please contact me (lwendzich [@gmail.com]) if you are interested in writing for us.