BAs of the world unite

I think lots of people forget how it is like to be young.

I remember when I was 14 or so, I (and perhaps another friend) coined the term BA. It stands for Brainless Adult. It is specifically modelled after this one particular teacher. She is nice and not particularly outstanding. She thought W and I were lesbians (that is another story)... To us, she is just so out of touch with youth, caught up with her adult life, seeking typical adult things (have not yet figured out what this is). Just the essence of anti-youth, being so grown up and reasonable (in an adult sense). Just not frivolous. Mind you, she wasn't that old, she was just in her mid-late 20s.

After a few years (~4 years), I met her again. This time as a colleague when I was working as a substitute teacher after JC. By then, she had a baby and seemed rather content with her lot. I was somewhat less appalled with her BA-ness, but still didn't want to become anything that moderately resembled her.

Back when I was 14, I remembered having conversations about never becoming BAs. Alas, along the way, many of us have evolved. Even me. At times, I catch myself doing BA-like things like mentally channelling "tsk tsk" at rowdy young(er) people.

Just recently, people from work (PFW) exclaimed that youth is wasted on the young, specially directed at me. Well, I am not that young as compared to my 14 year old self but the PFW are really not THAT much older (~10 years). They are just BAs. Perhaps BAs forgot about their younger days or didn't enjoy life when they were young. Hence, the disregard for youth and the constant attempts to try to turn people into BAs (trying to make me feel bad about being young(er) does not make me want to be BA-mature).

The more I talk to BAs, the less I want to be like them. Why should I try to look suitably old and mature when I have the rest of my life to do that? Easy to look old, crazily hard and expensive to look young.

How to identify a BA:

- People who don't find joy in little things (things that make children happy)

- They try to convert others into becoming BAs

- You can have adult conversations with them

- They do sensible things (clothes, shoes, hair, conversations) all the time

- They don't really smile

- They are the people your parents want you to be

- Disapproving of anything non sensible or fun or frivolous

Granted, I am weirder than normal and rather un-BA-like for people my age. But there are lots of BAs out there, all seeking to make the world BA-ish and sensible.