This year at week 3 the theme is peer pressure (also time travel but I think that’s more a motif than a theme). I imagine Gord intends to talk about living your faith in an increasingly secularized world ready to mock pre-teens for going to church let alone adhering to any sort of religious tenets. That has me thinking about the pressure to be cool when you are that age. I know I felt pulled in a lot of different directions and I was pretty miserable for a while.
Jr High wasn’t really a high point for me. At least not at first. I had just moved across the country and knew no one. I was trying so hard to hard to fit in, I didn’t have any friends and I never had anything to do. Eventually I gave up trying to impress the popular kids and I was just myself. I found people who shared my bizarre sense of humour and were just as into playing Nintendo as I was. By the time I hit high school I had forgotten all about being cool and just focused on having fun. I never went to a single party but I really didn’t care.
Hobbes has it exactly right in this strip. What is the point of being cool if you don’t get to do what you want? I’d rather be having a good time than abandon what I like to be accepted. When I finally realized that life became a whole lot less complicated and a whole lot less depressing.
When I plan activities at camp they always seem to spring from a desire to show even just one kid they don’t have to be a slave to what their peers expect of them. If they want to wear a pot on their head as a hat, why not? If they want to summersault across the field with their friends who am I to stop them? If just one kid steps up and does something because they feel like it despite the potential scorn from their peers I feel like I have done a good job.
I’m the guy who teaches the waiter calculus (Tobermory Fish and Chip place (we got all the way to integration before he got the orders right). The guy who daydreams gunmen are about to pop up at any second and looks for bushes to dive into and old ladies to shield himself with. I’m the guy who takes pride in his prime numbered apartment. I like to think I have garnered a certain amount of respect for doing the things I like with the goofy people I enjoy. If that isn’t the case I’m not really broken up about it. Maybe that who cares attitude is what being cool is all about. What’s that echo in the room? I’m totally wrong and still a huge dork? Oh well, at least I’m having a good time.