I spent at least two hours today listening to teenagers’ and their varying views. There are four who live in this house, two girlfriends who are here regularly, and a co-worker or two who also stop in.
At least half of them “should” be somewhere else right now.
Instead, I was treated to their (quite) diverse points of view on what should be happening in the world. They have strong opinions on face masks’ effectiveness and legalities. (Some are vehemently against, others are willing to comply).
They were rather united in their disbelief of Russia’s surprise announcement today, claiming to have created a vaccine so quickly.
They are determined to live as fully as they can, confident in their immortality and youthful vigor. At the same time, they are all—without exception–concerned about passing the virus onto someone unknowingly.
Most of the topics were on college classes, living arrangements on campuses, testing, results coming in already from other schools and their own ways of preparing.
The pandemic looms large in everyone’s lives.
But, typical of their unstoppable nature, this is not all that’s on their minds. We also talked about the democratic vice presidential nominee and his newly announced running mate… our current president’s chances of re-election and the mental acuity of both candidates… the town’s new (and third) homeless shelter construction…work… and Disney movies. Never a dull moment—which is my silver lining for today.
