The Short Lived Youth of Our Time

in the golden days of my youth in canada, bible stories were exchanged at lunch for the love of the adventure, not the religion, and the boys were never afraid to ask the girls to play with them, not just to be nice, but because we were all friends, i hoped we'd never leave. there were days when the girl and the boys had snowball fights on the same side, and the concept of having a crush on someone was vague and undefined. if there were any prejudices, they were against the older kids who knocked down our snow forts in winter and stole our fields for soccer games. i lived every day like my last.

and then a crushing blow to it delivered my family to the vast and even more confusing land of the united states of america.

i was an ignorant child supposedly, living in the bubble that i put myself in through grade school, where 'gay' was a whole new concept to learn and cussing was learning a lot more words then stupid. arriving with my luggage at the airport in a strange place, i carried nothing but the clothes in my suitcase and the culture on my back.

should a move really make that much of a difference? are canada and the usa really that different?

maybe my above statement is true then. maybe i was living in a bubble, keeping myself away from all the socially unacceptable things. things i might have known about from the beginning.

things i learned upon arriving:
i didn't know what being gay was till at least seventh grade. i had no opinion on it until eighth.
i didn't know any cuss words until sixth grade. i didn't use them until eighth. up until that point i was under the impression that 'stupid' was a cuss.
i didn't know what an abortion was until eighth grade. i still don't have an opinion on it.

and now my ten year old sister is telling me grade schoolers call each other fags.
and long hair on guys is considered gay.
and one piece suits on girls make them lesbians.

there's something at work here.
because my
bubble
has definitely
POPPED.