Girls

I realized this a long time ago, but today it hit me again:

I do not like the girls in my grade at school.

My feelings about school are mixed. I love learning and mastering new things. But sometimes the knowledge can seem too simple or completely useless. That's why I like English; I feel like it applies to everything. I'm very easily-offended when people disregard English and history as unimportant compared to math and science.

I'm taking AP language, so one would assume that most kids in my class would feel the same; like the symbolic and abstract book we're reading is fascinating. Or the homework that we do is worthwhile. But obviously, I'm alone in thinking that Annie Dillard is a brilliant writer. People my age don't see things as dynamically as I do. That's probably why I'm addicted to "An American Childhood."

It's a collection of short stories and essays about her (Annie's) life. She is starving for knowledge. She reads books like a woman eats chocolate. She reads about everything she can get her hands on. It makes me so jealous. One of her only friends is Judy, who treats her like a charity project. It reminds me a lot of my life. Anyway, her writing is really symbolic and involves a lot of interesting themes.

Back to my issue, some chicks who sit by me start complaining about how much homework they have, how this class is so pointless, and how much they hate the book. It bothers me that actually think this class is hard. There is very little homework, it just takes some concentration and deep thinking. It bothers me that they don't put forth any type of effort to learn something and make class meaningful. It bothers me that they immediately shelf a book because it's not talking about fictional vampires and stupid teenage romance.

We take a quiz each class period to check for reading comprehension. Two of the girls in my class text each other the answers. It's so annoying. Is it really that hard?! Maybe I'm being insensitive. Is it difficult for some people, who signed up for an AP class, to do the work?

Should this really bother me as much as it does? Probably not. It probably seems trivial to anyone past high school age. I'm just so easily annoyed at anyone who doesn't take time to appreciate a true classic. I'm annoyed also at immature girls who don't know how to work or think past a day in advance.

Read more about author Annie Dillard here.