Is it Time to Grow Up?

so the last book of the series i'm reading by Lisa Wingate is called The Language of Sycamores. In the novel Karen, the main character, continually looks back at when she was younger and still innocent. She had dreams and hopes and still saw the world as a good place. However, as she got older, she became cynical and her days became monotonous. She was at constant compitition with her sister.
In today's society, adults can't seem to get kids to grow up fast enough. In Junior High priciples are trying to get us to already find a career and plan for college. Parents (and this is most disturbing) are pushing their young daughters to dress like a whore so they can be popular. Sons are being pushed to be the best at sports and be considered a star by the age of 10. Most of us didn't know or care about sex until junior high. now, i know 4th graders who know as much as I do about sex...and i'm a SENIOR! So when should we grow up? Is innocence and youth so outdated? And if it's not....what can WE do to change things back to how they are supposed to be? I have a 5 year old brother and it worries me about the society that he is living in. Some of the kids he goes to school with have mothers who are barely 20. I can name 5 girls right now who are pregnant teens. How did our society get here? I don't know about you, but I don't want not just my kids, but anyone's kids to continue to grow up in a society such as this. I want to get them back to youth and to stop forcing them to be as knowledgable about work, sex, stress, and death as I am...when I'm ten years older then them. So, are we going to bring a change to the future, or are we going to continue to let this injustice to children continue? And if we want change...what can we do to bring it about?...in fact, CAN WE?

Humbled Nose

A little more on Good Hope Road. The story was told in two points of view...a girl about 21 and an old woman in her 60's. The girl was always thought to be white trash and the old woman was one of those women who was part of the garden party. She snubbed her nose at the lower class and gossiped about everyone. However, a tornedo hits the town and the little white trash girl saves her life and the town drunk helps her with her memory (she's starting to forget things). She starts to realize that they are both good people. The girl was misjudged by people and never given a chance. The drunk was a good man who just had alot of crummy luck and missed his wife. Furthermore, when the girl's mother was dying of cancer he was the only one in the entire town who would bring them milk, eggs, and vegetables and ask about the family. So it made me start to think, do we misjudge those who APPEAR to be beneath us because they have less money or because of who their family is? I have often times been humbled by these revelations as i get to know certain people. However, we often find that trash is just that, trash. Often times people are considered trash because they are crude, low mannered, and drink all the time. But most of society does that anyway. Maybe they drink more expensive alcohol and go to night clubs rather than bars, but aren't the upper class doing the same thing as the lower class, everything is just more expensive? So i wonder, what makes the difference between "just having fun" and being trash? Are we really so superior? I think we have alot of gawl to snub our noses at people when we are guilty of the same crimes. Can you say "Hypocrite"?