Graduation

If you have noticed the lack of posts for the past few days, it is because I have been busy celebrating my high school graduation. I thought it would have been a grave injustice to sacrifice actual teenage experiences in the name of keeping up with my blog that is supposed to document actual teenage experiences.

Paradoxes and catch-22s aside, graduating high school was great, if not anticlimactic. The event took place on my school's football field. The temperature was a sweltering 94 degrees, but in my ankle-length, polyester sweatbox it felt much warmer. Numerous anti-frizz serums and elixirs kept my my hair from mushrooming out from beneath my mortarboard. I have to admit that, temperature aside, I felt hotter in my academic regalia than I have felt in

any other outfit that I've worn during the duration of this project. How anti-Seventeen this is, especially since I was wearing an identical outfit as 275 other girls.

The ceremony itself was fairly boring. I pomped. I circumstanced. I listened to a bunch of adults who I didn't know address the class of 2010, but actually address our parents, using metaphors about butterflies and the like. I sweated. I waved to my grandparents. I asked kids sitting near me overly personal questions about their sex lives. I counted how many people in the stands brought umbrellas for sun protection. I sweated some more. I cheered really loud for my friends. I got my diploma. Then I was graduated.

Initially I was surprised how easy it was to graduate. The only two skills you need are walking and sitting. My seat mate kindly reminded me that I actually had to do 12 years of work to earn the right to walk and sit. This observation made me feel stupid, but also accomplished. I know that school is mostly compulsory, but it felt really great to complete an endeavor that took twelve years, especially when I sometimes fail to finish projects intended to last an afternoon.

In the spirit of closure and accomplishment, I'll acknowledge the fact that today is the technical last day of this project. I'll save conclusions, summaries, and lessons learned for a future post, but I just wanted to sort of frame out what the rest of this blog is going to look like for everyone. Today is the last official day of The Seventeen Magazine Project, as outlined by my initial post. I am going swimming at my cousins' house for Father's Day, so I'll dress bikini confident and blog about it tomorrow. That will be the last fashion/beauty post.

The week to come is going to include lots of stuff related to teens and media and fair portrayal, including a list of pro-teen media that seems to "get" the teenage experience. I'll also be putting together a short project, a little bit of a fuck you to Seventeen, that lots of people will have the opportunity to get involved with. This will run all week. Hopefully we can affect some change in the ladymag industry. It'll be fun/badass/a little subversive I think. I'll introduce it in detail tomorrow probably.

EDITED TO ADD: Fan me on Facebook, and then maybe delete my personal profile from your friends? I am trying to figure out an easier way to keep in touch with people. My real life friends find the current system to be REALLY annoying.