Isn't that sweet? I mean, how many teenagers do you know actually want to be seen in public with their parents (and sister-in-law)? He's not embarrassed of us? They grow up so fast, sniff.
Having a nineteen year old BIL has been both an amusing and enlightening experience. Amusing because I like having a little brother who I can tease about things like his constantly changing relationship status. He's a relatively quiet kid, but he takes my ribbing goodnaturedly...though he turned slightly pale when I jokingly mentioned that he should give the best man speech at J's and my wedding.
Enlightening because I can't imagine being a teenager in this day and age--growing up with cell phones, wireless, texting, and Facebook, for one thing. I probably wouldn't have graduated on time had I been bombarded with so many technological distractions. You know what we had when I was at Yale? Landlines, computer kiosks and Telnet. I'm pretty sure that Geocities was still new back then too. Wow, I just dated myself.
The amount of underage drinking that goes on these days also astounds me. I'm sure it's no different from when I was growing up, but understand that I didn't have my first drink until the summer after I graduated...from college. I was introduced to alcohol on the law firm's dime (weekly open bar happy hours with top shelf liquor *in* our office), and even then, I was still underage by a few months. During college and high school, I'd been pretty clueless as to the amount of binge drinking that had been going on around me--it blows me away that my BIL probably started drinking when he was like fourteen.
What else. I wasn't allowed to date in high school. I wasn't allowed to go to prom. I wasn't allowed to have a social life and frankly, I didn't have time for one because I was too busy with tennis, music, language lessons, and myriad other extracurricular activities. At the time, I'm not sure I even felt that I was missing out on anything, but it amazes me now how my coming of age experiences were vastly different from those of today's youth (and yesterday's youth too, I suppose). So I've learned a lot from my BIL and I try to give him the best advice I can. But he's a good kid and I'm sure he'll be fine, with or without my help.
The amount of underage drinking that goes on these days also astounds me. I'm sure it's no different from when I was growing up, but understand that I didn't have my first drink until the summer after I graduated...from college. I was introduced to alcohol on the law firm's dime (weekly open bar happy hours with top shelf liquor *in* our office), and even then, I was still underage by a few months. During college and high school, I'd been pretty clueless as to the amount of binge drinking that had been going on around me--it blows me away that my BIL probably started drinking when he was like fourteen.
What else. I wasn't allowed to date in high school. I wasn't allowed to go to prom. I wasn't allowed to have a social life and frankly, I didn't have time for one because I was too busy with tennis, music, language lessons, and myriad other extracurricular activities. At the time, I'm not sure I even felt that I was missing out on anything, but it amazes me now how my coming of age experiences were vastly different from those of today's youth (and yesterday's youth too, I suppose). So I've learned a lot from my BIL and I try to give him the best advice I can. But he's a good kid and I'm sure he'll be fine, with or without my help.
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