Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 17th Birthday, Kara Johnson!
Our cousin is hopefully having a happy day, but we haven’t gotten much news on that yet; and were only in on her special day through the family gifts that were sent to her by Mom and our local aunts and cousins.
For the third day of the week, we’ve enjoyed the warm weather; and our adventures followed the same path we chose on Monday and Tuesday. Instead of repeating ourselves, let’s just confirm that we had an awesome day at school, with the late-afternoon biking and play time, and while we work-played at the lab or archives after dinner. The timing for hitting the tub or Jacuzzi was about the same as last night; so we’ll manage to be sleeping before midnight while adding a bit of a trade-off due to more-extensive use of a time phase while at the lab.
I’m not quite ready to sleep yet, but don’t want to get into a rant or major commentary on world news either; so maybe I should continue giving our future journal readers a break from extended updates – or not! ;^)
For the record, Ethan half-hoped for the early end to this report, but then he usually enjoys my extended commentaries too; so he’ll survive. Then again, since I want to write about social issues from a girls’ perspective; I could be wrong about that!
My recent thoughts on this issue have been stirred by both news stories and recent school gossip related to Hollywood and the Academy Awards. No, I am not really interested in any of the fakery, but I do appreciate the differences between what we have here at home compared to other places. I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that we’re perfect here in our little corner of the world, but we definitely are different in how we interact with our families, friends, and neighbors. Ethan and I have written about occasional drama moments with our friends or other kids or teens, but those stories are fairly-mild, and that is true because we care more about each other than about ourselves. In a way, that’s really the main difference between us and those other places where people believe that self-interest is more important.
None of that is specifically from a girls’ perspective, but before I go there; let’s also mention that caring more about others does not preclude a person from wanting to be their best, have success, or accomplish lofty goals. It does mean that you can do those things while staying humble; helping others to achieve their dreams and goals; and do that as a team, community, or even as a world – though we’re just getting started on helping to make that happen. The points I want to make for our social lives for myself and our girlfriends as we’re heading into our teen years mostly have to do with how we feel about each other even when we have disagreements; how we interact and deal with the boys in our lives; and the ways that we deal with the pressures that range from physical changes and personal issues through to those bigger issues like socio-economic standing and future hopes and dreams.
Girls our age are definitely dealing with physical issues that include being taller than many of the boys our age as well as the attention we’re getting for the other developments that the boys are finding most-interesting. Ethan isn’t blushing about that right now, but he is smiling; and can’t hide the fact that I sense how he feels about that – especially when it comes to Naomi! That isn’t scary for the girls, since while there are sure to be guys interested in dating as many different girls as possible – along with appreciating all girls; our local guys are also all well-taught to respect girls too. That would be considered sexist or worse by many people elsewhere, but it works for us; and we really enjoy being able to feel safe in our homes and community. Since we recently wrote about the teen drama at Joshua’s birthday party, I want to add that the girls are generally nicer when dealing with that kind of boy-girl drama, but the boys also get the message loud and clear when they mess up – eventually. All of that is going to be more-important as we reach the time when the boys our age will become significantly-stronger than the girls – and that brings up another difference to elsewhere; since we don’t even think about things like transgender athletes; since that won’t happen locally and we simply wouldn’t participate if that sort of thing was mandated for the sports where we compete with other regional schools. While there, let’s also add that we do not have even one local athlete competing at the collegiate level participating in any sports where transgender athletes are allowed.
While that last bit of commentary is toxic to even talk about elsewhere, it is far from the only ‘social’ issue that we just don’t care about here at home. We have enough to deal with for what are our ‘normal’ lives; and how we feel about ourselves is supported by our loved ones and doesn’t require forcing anyone to, at the very least, pretend to accept us whether true or not. That’s getting a bit into the weeds; so let’s get back on-track with where I actually want to go with this little commentary that might already be getting too-long for some of our future journal readers.
I suppose that what I’m really trying to get around to writing is that our hometown girls are blessed to be friends with all of the other girls around our respective ages; we support each other even when we are involved in competitions; and the teen dramas don’t permanently affect us. Cassie might have disagreed with me on that a bit for her teen years, since she definitely had issues with a few of the girls, but I will point out that she did move here; so that’s different from growing up with our friends from birth; and those problems were resolved and don’t affect her friendships with those girls anymore – though Cassie and Michael do still get teased about those stories now and then and probably will be for the rest of their lives.
Moving along again, our girlfriends and I like ‘girly’ things; we can multi-task that with adventures that we can share with our favorite boys; and we’re okay with work that is considered traditionally for girls while also being free to learn and do other jobs that interest us. Sure, my lab work doesn’t push the boundaries for that, but we do have girlfriends that enjoy helping out with tougher physical work related to farming, construction, or other trades. Ethan wants me to mention that the guys are taught at least the basics for things like housekeeping and cooking, and that’s true, but this is a girl-centric commentary; and he’s welcome to take over for a day if he feels the need to add in a guy-themed social report.
That thought does bring me around to the last point I’ll make tonight that is related to some issues that we – the girls – do have with the boys. With few exceptions, most of the boys our age are either oblivious or afraid of ‘girl’ issues like menstrual cycles, and that causes problems when they aren’t prepared to deal with the emotional issues that can go along with those physical problems. Yes, I’m excluding Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron from those guys, but then I also need to add that Magi girls have a significant advantage over ‘normal’ girls; since we can control those cycles; and I can help Naomi and Sophia whenever they have any extreme discomfort. While the boys can be annoying for that sort of issue, they can be equally-irritating when it comes to those physical changes that they do notice and appreciate too much! Sure, that isn’t only a guy thing, since girls can and do appreciate our favorite guys, but the way we act is different; and guys also react differently to the attention they get from girls. Okay, some girls enjoy the attention a lot too, but most of our girlfriends do not appreciate interacting with guys when they focus on parts of our bodies – especially when we’re talking with them, but also when we’re simply in the same vicinity. We don’t need to go on about the obvious, since that is nothing new or newsworthy to any girl – and that’ll likely be true in the future, but for any boys reading this whenever you’re doing that; feel free to learn and do better with the girls in your life! Those are far from the only two boy-girl issues, but this has been long-enough for tonight; and Ethan probably doesn’t want me to get into commentary about dating and physical relationships – if for no other reason than that Naomi is sure to keep him ahead of the rest of our friends with their relationship. As a group of six with our best friends, that’s likely still true for all of us, but then we expect that will change eventually; since at least a few of our friends have different personal intimacy boundaries.
Maybe that isn’t where we should be taking our thoughts as we head into dreamland soon – or that is definitely-true for Ethan; judging by the smile on his face; so I’d better just end this here before adding any thought-ammunition that might take his dreams anywhere that kids our age shouldn’t go! Stay tuned for our next report where writing about Ethan’s dreams tonight might need to be restricted for content inappropriate for family reading! ;^)
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
