such great heights

"They will see us waving from such great heights,
'Come down now,' they'll say;
But everything looks perfect from far away,
'Come down now,' but we'll stay..."
- The Postal Service *

Alex's "Letter to the Editor" post yesterday lent me that spark of inspiration, I suppose you could call it. At any rate, it made me think more about how we perceive other people. I, too, have experienced times when my friends and I (or even random other people our age) are frowned upon simply because we're - what? Smiling too hard? Talking too loud? Having too much fun? Yes, it's irritating when you're in the library and a group of high school students stumbles in, laughing their heads off, but it doesn't make them ruffians or serial killers, for Christ's sake. I admit that there are a number of young people who commit various misdemeanors: vandalism, stealing, getting stoned, whatever. However, I truly believe that that portion of the teenage population is over-exaggerated. Sure, I screw up a lot, and so do most people I know but I'm not exactly jail material. I do know people in my school who fit the stupid teenager stereotype perfectly, but the grand majority of people, freshmen to seniors, don't do anything worse than drink at a party occasionally - and most of that percentage of the population doesn't even drink. I'm not advocating underage drinking; obviously it can lead to worse situations, but sans car crash, I do think there are far worse ways to break the law. Most of the time, the only thing we're doing wrong is writing in random numbers on our math homework that we - ahem - "forgot" to do or accidentally blocking the entrance to a local CVS.

The fact is, people have a bad tendency of judging people based on stereotypes rather than for their individual worth. I hope that'll change one day, but it seems like it's written into our DNA... maybe we're simply afraid to challenge the way we see the world. :/

Whatcha reading?
I'm reading "Le Petit Prince;" it's my summer assignment for French. I'm also skimming "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which is what I read for English. I finished reading it a week or two ago, but I have to fill out some questions about it. It's not that bad, really, as far as homework goes; it's mostly composed of questions that give you free reign, like an exercise reading "Favorite lines from the book and explanation of why they were your favorites" and "Main ideas conveyed by the book and your opinion of the ideas." Not too difficult, I think.

I have two questions on blogging, but I suppose I'll save the second one for Friday:
Generally, how long does it take you to write one blog post?

* "Such Great Heights" is the only song by The Postal Service that I've ever really heard - certainly, the only one I've listened to on repeat. Maybe you've heard of it? It's really chill, I love it. :)