Halloween...

There's been something I've been wanting to blog about - promiscuous Halloween costumes. Why is it that, as a seventeen year old girl, I can't find a Halloween costume that doesn't expose most of my body or make me look like a little kid. At the last costume store I went to, I found plenty of costumes for teenage girls that were barely there. Even a Rainbow Brite costume that consisted of a mini skirt and a tiny bra-like top. That was it. And the only other costume I found that didn't go with that common trend was a dorky clown costume. Nothing else but a dorky clown costume. Why aren't there costumes for young women that are fashionable and fun, without giving the wrong impression?

Luckily, I've noticed that chains like Rue 21 and Hottopic have Halloween costumes. Their costumes are pretty cute. Some from Hottopic are still a little on the skimpy side, but it's getting better.

Maybe the lack of appropriate Halloween costumes stems from the fact that teenage girls don't "trick-or treat". They just attend Halloween parties and dances. But personally I would not wanr to attend a party with my boyfriend where all of the girls are practically naked. Even alone, I wouldn't want to attend.

I understand showing a little bit of skin. I wear short skirts and heels - I am definetely not the most conservative person. But enough is enough! Honestly I've seen fifteen year old girls that are dressed like strippers! That's not appropriate!

I'm going as Catwoman this year for Halloween. The costume consists of a full polyester catsuit, black heels, and a mask. It's not a childish costume. It's very form fitting and gives me the look I'm going for, without being half-naked.

In all fairness, I'm a little more understanding about wearing these costumes if you're over eighteen years old. My sister has worn the Rainbow Brite costume and a revealing maid costume. But she's old enough to buy the costume herself and considered mature enough to make her own decisions. However, how can fathers let their young daughters out of the house wearing something that barely covers more than a bikini would? Maybe, I'm a hypocrite. Like I mentioned above, I wear some pretty short skirts and I've been criticized for the way I dress. But I'd never leave the house wearing some of the things I've seen at Halloween stores. I don't want to see girls who are fifteen years old wearing something like that. It's not safe if they go out at night. It's cold. It's just not a good idea.

I understand not wanting to wear a dorky clown costume to a Halloween party. But come on, you can find a happy medium between childish and half-naked. Make your own cute costume or look online. I just feel like the costumes I see on the shelves at the Halloween store are for women who are eighteen years old or older. They are not for girls who are fifteen or even thirteen years old.

Unable to be Heard

I never cease to be surprized by how disrespectful my peers are at highschool. The last friday of every month, my high school has an open-mike session during lunch in the cafeteria. Some people are actual dedicated musicians, and others are just popular kids goofing off.

I play piano, sing, and write all of my own songs. I was debating going up there because I'm aware of how rude they are. But when the teacher in charge of the open-mike told me that they were really low on performers I decided to give it my best shot.

Now the group before me was a couple of guys playing a cover of some song on their guitars. The girl before them was popular and even though her singing was awful, the cafeteria quited down a little for her and her friends even applauded her and asked for an encore.

Either they they paid attention because she was singing a popular song or just because she was popular, I don't know. But when I went up there and started to play, it seemed like people got louder. That's not just my imagination - even my friends told me they noticed it too.

Maybe this was because I'm not the most popular girl in the school or maybe it was because I was playing an original song that no one knew. Or it could've even been because of a technical difficulty that caused the microphones to be too quiet. But I attribute it to the fact that people just don't have respect for people like me.

Yeah I get it, okay? I'm a freak in highschool. Bur I can sing and I can play piano. I didn't put all of those years into voice lessons and piano lessons. Oh, and I can write songs and I spend hours doing so. I'm just sick of being upstaged by popular kids who don't put half the work into their performance that I do. It's utterly frustrating.

When will I get my chance? I keep telling myself that if I take the performance opporitunities that are handed to me at school, that at least my peers will respect and give me some credit as more than just 'the weird girl'. But nothing. I don't expect the world to stop spinning or the clouds to part to heaven. But for once, it would be nice to get noticed for the right reasons.

I'm betting that this is a problem that a lot of my fellow singer/songwriters at highschool have. Hopefully after I graduate, I can get out of this social hieracrchy and be heard.

"Engaged"

There is one thing that get's on my nerves more than anything else on Facebook. More than the public fights between friends or the annoying game requests. When two people my age change their relationship status to "engaged". And here is a list of reasons why you are not "engaged".

1.) You're both still living with your parents and you have no plan or money to support you and your fiancee

2.) Neither of you have a license or a car. Yeah, work on that first before you claim to be "engaged". How are you going to get to your job? Have your mommy drive you?

3.) You've known eachother less than six months (for that case, let's say less than a year). Yes I've heard of stories of lovers running off together after only having been together for a month or two. I know a couple who have been married forty years and they'd only know eachother for a month before they got married. But in todays society, I highly doubt your even going to get married. I don't mean to sound harsh, but most of my young friends on Facebook who change their status to "engaged" never actually get married or are even serious about it.

4.) Aren't actually serious about it. This ties in with number three. It's one thing to goof around on Facebook or goof around with friends. But getting engaged and married is serious thing. People should take it seriously.

It's not like I don't believe in young love. I do. But this relationship status change just makes you appear immature to your family and elders on Facebook. Trust me on this one. I know it sounds like I'm being harsh, but I'm being honest. I'm sick of my peers looking dumb on Facebook. So please, don't change your status unless you actually are serious about being engaged and are planning a wedding in the near future. For the sake of your annoyed friends on Facebook and yours truely.

Love or Something Like it...

I know a handful of people who think that teenagers can't be in love, that teenagers don't know what love means. Then I know a few people who think that young love is the only kind of true love there is.

Usually the argument against teenagers being in love goes something like this, "I have a niece and she thinks she's 'in love' with a new boy every week - one week it's Justin Bieber, the next week it's a boy in her class. Teenagers don't know what love is." But isn't that generalizing? Or steriotyping? That's not fair. Two of the relationships I've been in have lasted over a year - the first one lasted fourteen months and the guy I'm with now I've been with for almost a year and a half. I know that's not long compared to the old, happy couples who have been married for forty years. But I don't fall "in love" weekly.

The other argument against young love is that they don't understand all of the responsibilities that come with being in love. The definiton of love from Dictionary.com is "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person". What responsibilties are they talking about? The responsibilty to love one another, to take care of one another? This isn't marriage we're talking about. It's love. Yes, I will admit there are a set of responsibilities that my boyfriend and I have, expecially since we're planning a future together. Like whenever we consider career paths we keep eachother in mind. When I'm with him, my dad expects both of us to be "responsible."

When I asked my dad about this, he said it all depends on the people involved. He said some people who are in their thirties don't know what love is. He explained that he does see teenagers who skip from one relationship to the next and use the word too loosely. But I am not one of those people.I'm almost eighteen years old, I understand I don't know everything. But I get sick of people telling me that I'm not "in love" with my boyfriend soley on the basis of our age.

If my boyfriend and I were in an on-again off-again sort of relationship, I might be able to consider others opinions. And though we've got into one or two bigger arguments we have not broke up once in the time-span we've been together.

I can also tell you that our relationship is not based on infatuation or obsession. I get mad at him and he get's mad at me. I accept that he's not perfect, that no one is perfect and we move on. I don't expect him to read my mind or throw a little fit because he hung out with his guy friends instead of me. I tell him when something is wrong and we calmly discuss it. Oh, and we don't post "lovey-dovey" things back on forth of eachothers facebook walls or change our relationship status to 'engaged' when there's no ring, no official proposal, and we're both still living with our parents.

We're also very serious about eachother. We know eachothers families particularly well and know that we want a future together and have started to plan life together after high school. I'm not saying that we know everything about being in love or could get married today, or even saying that we'll be together forever. But I think this is the start of something great. My parents and his parents also feel the same way.

So whose to say that I don't love my boyfriend? Whose to say I don't know what love is?  Maybe I'm still young. But I hate it when people generalize my feelings and my relationship when they don't know a thing about me.

Hair

It's strange how everyone notices you and acknowledges you when you change a slight thing about your appearance. I will admit that my hair isn't exactly subtle but it's not like I dyed it pink and yellow.

Usually, I get a handful of scattered comments on my appearance - usually about my outfit that day or the makeup on my eyelids. But today when I came to school with a perm it seemed like I got an unprecedented amount of attention.

Half of my friends were like, "Uh...it's different." They said it as they covered their mouths with their hands as if they were worried that their true feelings about my hair would slip off of their tongues and insult me. The other half of the people (some people I didn't even know knew my name) exclaimed, "I love it!" The lunch ladies at school. my counselor, a lot of the girls from my class and from my lunch table had this reaction.

I just don't understand it. The attention is nice once in a while, but it's just strange how many people suddenly knew my name or spoke to me just because  of my hair. I don't try for all of this attention. I just wear what I want to and cut my hair and style it as I want to. l'll admit that some of the things I wear are a little crazy.But I did not expect so many people to be talking about my new curly hair today.

It just shows that even when you think you are that kid in the back, the one that no one talks to or picks as their partner for classroom projects that maybe people do look your way after all. Maybe you don't go as unnoticed as you thought you did.

Disgusted

Maybe I'm too sensitive or too compassionate. When it's raining outside the only thing I can think about is the poor homeless animals that are stuck in the rain. My stomach turns when I hear any story about animal abuse and tears roll down my cheeks. Then the rest of the day, or even month I can't get it off my mind. Sometimes for a year after I think about it and cry and wish I could rescue all of the poor innocent animals and stop the suffering. But it's beyond my power and maybe I just need to learn to accept that.

I just don't see why anyone would hurt an animal. I understand punishing a dog, when it wets on the floor or barks too much. That is, with a newspaper or scolding it by lowers the tone of your voice. But not brutally beating it. My dad has two small Australian Silky Terriers and I have a cat whom I love very much named Valetta. I'd never even imagine hurting Valetta or either of the dogs.

I grew up in a family where we constantly took in animals. The neighbor boys would bring a hurt animal to our door and my mom would take it in and try to nurse it back to health or make it's last days as comfortable as possible. We took in two baby crows whose mother had been killed by a stray cat, we took in a pregnant rabbit who'd been injured. I developed a love for all animals. Even the crows, who people say are dirty, disgusting birds. I fed the babies and took care of them.

I don't see why anyone would want to hurt a defenseless animal. I just want to look them in the eyes and say, "Why? Does it make you feel big? Does it make you feel powerful to hurt something that's smaller than you?" I hate it even when people hurt animals for purpose of clothing.

I recently stumbled upon this link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/racoons-fake-uggs_n_994973.html

In China, they are skinning these poor raccoon dogs alive, just to make knock-off Ugg boots. But why? I understand you can make a lot of money off of these boots. But are these boots really that important? Are they more important than the dog who is suffering for the purpose of making them? I hope the word spreads and I hope people stop buying these boots. I know it won't stop animal abuse completely because I bet there are many businesses who are letting animals suffer for the purpose of making money. But I feel so much disgust for the people who are letting these raccoon dogs suffer.. They could at least be humane and put them out of their misery. But no, they don't and it's sick. I'm tired of seeing people with no respect for any form of life but their own.

There is a video on the internet of the raccoon dogs being skinned for the boots. I can't look it up - I just can't watch it and I'm not comfortable linking to it. I already stumbled upon a couple of pictures from the video and I almost broke down crying. I just can't stand to see people treating animals like they are just items, like they are just a gimmick to make money. I don't where fur as is, but I'm going to make sure I do a background search on the food I'm eating and the clothes I wear so I don't unknowingly advocate for any practice as sick as this is.