Reworking

I think I have lost something cool about myself in order to be cooler. The other day one of my Antarctican friends told me that when he met me he thought I was "too cool for school." Which I thought was hilarious, because me? My friends and I were literally called "The Nerd Herd" in middle school. And I didn't really care. (Actually I did care, because I was in middle school.) But I suppose I have learned how to project a certain hipness, a certain indifference and cynicism and love for celebrity fashion blogs (why?). But I think all this hip is bad for the soul. It's like smoking--it looks good, and it feels good, but it rots you slowly.

I was thinking about this because I am thinking about working with teenagers again and I'm not sure I have the same inner security that I used to and that you need to work with teenagers. Do I want to be a role model? I drink a lot.

Hopefully will regain bearings once I am back on a continent that is less weird. Ok.

On a kind of related note, yesterday I bought a t-shirt that says "You don't have to be crazy to work here...We'll train you!" with a big picture of Antarctica. So true.