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| Have you ever noticed that whenever a crime is committed by someone under 25, people say, for example �Done by a bunch of drunken youths� like it�s the being young part that�s worst of all, or �a lot of teenagers� like that�s the worst thing in the world. Well I have. I am sick of having to stand on buses, being followed around by salespeople who think I�m stealing stuff just because I�m young, being called a �hoodlum� and a �street urchin�, being treated bad by older people and being suspected of being on drugs by fundamentalist Christians just because I�m 15. I am sick of being discriminated against on the grounds of age. It is not fair. You aren�t allowed to discriminate against people on the grounds of sex or race (even though some people do) but yet there are stickers that tell the police to pull cars over if there�s someone younger than 25 driving it. What�s next, anti-Maori stickers? Anti-female stickers? Anti-anyone wearing orange stickers? Those damn stickers just make me want to go out and steal a car. Doesn�t one of the international human rights agreements New Zealand has signed forbid discrimination on the grounds of race, sex or age? It says age, man. But then on the old Red Bus company buses, there are angry signs all around the bus that say �a school child will not be seated on this bus if an adult is standing�. Perhaps the kid has been at school all day, is tired, had to run the cross country, and has had to wait for 45 minutes standing at the Bus Exchange (which, given the sorry state of the bus system in Christchurch, is not entirely out of the question). Now along comes this person who�s been sitting in a nice, air-condition building all day, had a seat at the bus exchange, doesn�t have to wear a kilt that weighs about as much as an elephant, and has shoes that you can balance in. and when this older person gets on, there are seats at the back free. But nooooo, the older person wants a seat at the front. So a tired little school kid has to get up and haul their 10 kg backpack full of textbooks on their shoulders, and stand. And then the old person gets off the bus 2 stops later... I am not saying all old people are bad, or that they all do this. It is just some. And I am just so mad. It is crappy being hated for being an age that you have no power over being, especially cause the ones that are mean to you cause of your age were that age once themselves. It is not the same as men making sexist jokes about women or anything. Those men were never women (probably). But if they were making jokes about young people, it�s different cause they were that age once. Though I guess when they were young, people liked kids. Now everyone hates kids. Oh look at those damn kuds. Get off the road, ya damn teenagers. Damn schoolkuds these days, got no respect. We should send them off to military school, it never did me any harm. Well ha ha ha you geriatric generals. Though actually, I have to say I did once meet a young person who thought that compulsory military training would be a good idea. She said it would make people disciplined. Well what I figured out from my 2 and a bit hours of hell at ANC, or ACN or whatever, that military thing, is that I am way too much of a smart-ass to ever be able to listen to the voice of authority. Fight the power, man! Also, everyone thinks teenagers are lazy. I admit that I am lazy, but not everyone is. And I am only lazy on Sundays. A columnist in The Listener, the only magazine my parents will get, said that if she wanted to watch people lie around all day and do nothing, she would �hire a teenager�. Well lady (and I mean that in the worst possible way), all you do is write one column a week. I am in 5th from and I spend all week getting ready for stupid school cert. And doing homework, and babysitting, and doing my job, and spending time with my friends, and, once in a millennium, my family (sorry guys. I just like sleep). That is tons more than she does. Who is she to say teenagers never do anything? Well, you perhaps four adults who have ever picked up this horrible magazine, I hope you will tell adults who are mean to kids off once in a while. It is really depressing being made fun of and harassed on account of age. And also, people always ask to check my bags because they think I�m stealing something. Oh well, can�t dwell on it. I�m gonna go gossip or run around or something equally immature. |
| Da Yoof of NZ/Aotearoa |
| By Tay |
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