Teenagers Don’t Care: Part I

At least that’s what I thought. I was one after all a short time ago. Being only 23, the days of my own apathy are not a forgotten ghost of a memory. I remember being apathetic and I remember being stupid and I remember something I almost forgot. I remember a troupe of students from some college or another coming into my high school and teaching Spanish.

I don’t even remember much of college, much less high school. But this particular memory, of learning spanish with a college student, has stuck in my head. I may not remember which college they came from, what her name was, or even ANY of the Spanish they tried to teach me, but I remember the experience distinctly. I could never roll my R’s properly, so Spanish was not my forte.

I might not have taken away what they wanted me to take away, but I did take away a newfound sense of self from it. They cared, they listened, maybe not more then our teachers, but it somehow meant more. Not too long ago they had been my age. They still remembered it, and I looked up to them because of it.

This memory was what made me so eager to join Dana Saewitz’s High School Advertising Workshop. Learning with the college students broke apart my apathy of learning. I was eager to learn Spanish and looked forward to it. Unfortunately the program was pulled after a few weeks, leaving us high schoolers to our humdrum teachers and classes.

I was determined to help make this pilot semester of the High School Advertising Workshop succeed. It was strange being on the flip side of the coin, being the teacher and not the taught. Refreshing in a sense, terrifying in another. How was I supposed to inspire these teenagers to consider Advertising as a career?

Stay tuned for Part II of Teenagers Don’t Care.