Can’t you see grown folks talking here?

Remember that? We called it “ear hustling” but you might know it as eavesdropping when a kid is caught listening to a grown-up conversation. Grown ups talk about a lot of things but actually being one is blog worthy.

I both teach teens and was a teen and ex-teens are not so different than their baby-faced counterparts aside from a little weight gain, gray hair and/or lost hair. The ex-teens play video games, do social networking online and instant message on a carpal tunnel inducing level.

But the ex-teens and teens diverge at some point and it’s not necessarily at the corner of BECAUSE I SAID SO and I’M OVER 30. They part ways when the ex-teen looks in the eyes of teens who were born when he was still a high school senior. He stares at the teen, as if into a mirror, and then as he says his goodbyes, the ex-teen shares the emotion. The ex-teen remembers how his world was devastated by the departure of a role model. Fear, anxiety and loss all flood the teen. But the ex-teen is no longer a peer and can both sympathize and appreciate the lesson being taught to the teen. The ex-teen has become a guide upon whom teens depend. One day we all get to be grown folk.