In high school I had a buddy who was super into music and got a gig writing reviews for new albums.
I found and memorized an entire review, word for word (at least 1000 words), and set up my one other buddy to ask me if I’d heard of the album casually at lunch.
I only got partway through the second sentence before my buddy was like “oh my god fuck you” and got up and left. It was such an incredible waste of memorization.
I cringe because of how shitty it was to do… I really did/do love the guy. But, if this is the worst “boys will be boys” that I had out of high school I think I did ok.
Was it really that shitty though? You engaged his work in a fun way. You weren’t making fun of his work or him but rather just teasing him. Of course the joke/prank was funny but if I was him I would also feel happy that a buddy read at least one of my articles, even for a laugh.
The ego of a teenage boy is actually pretty fragile, and he had really put himself out there.
As a mostly-fully-formed adult with a mostly-fully-formed identity, totally agree with you. Sometimes I forget how vulnerable we were as children.
If I could do it over again, I’d still do it, I’d just have somehow made it clear I was impressed by what he’d done, and wasn’t mocking him for doing it.
In high school I had a buddy who was super into music and got a gig writing reviews for new albums.
I found and memorized an entire review, word for word (at least 1000 words), and set up my one other buddy to ask me if I’d heard of the album casually at lunch.
I only got partway through the second sentence before my buddy was like “oh my god fuck you” and got up and left. It was such an incredible waste of memorization.
I cringe because of how shitty it was to do… I really did/do love the guy. But, if this is the worst “boys will be boys” that I had out of high school I think I did ok.
Was it really that shitty though? You engaged his work in a fun way. You weren’t making fun of his work or him but rather just teasing him. Of course the joke/prank was funny but if I was him I would also feel happy that a buddy read at least one of my articles, even for a laugh.
The ego of a teenage boy is actually pretty fragile, and he had really put himself out there.
As a mostly-fully-formed adult with a mostly-fully-formed identity, totally agree with you. Sometimes I forget how vulnerable we were as children.
If I could do it over again, I’d still do it, I’d just have somehow made it clear I was impressed by what he’d done, and wasn’t mocking him for doing it.
Thanks for cutting me some slack on this, though.