You know those girls? They're a little taller than average, like 5'6" or so, maybe 120 pounds at most, and in early high school, say, 10th grade, everyone just wants to be them. These are the ones who started straightening their hair in 5th grade; their eyeliner matches their shoelaces; they sleep around but it's just one of the many other things they get away with. And it's not that you hate them, it's more that you have no reason to like them, and it looks like they'll be hanging around for awhile anyways so why not be at least civil?
The two girls who are the poster children for this stereotype in my high school have one flaw in their put-together life... they chew tobacco.
When I saw that, I think I threw up a little in my mouth. It's just that, these girls see themselves as the ideal of feminine. And they're chewing tobacco? You must be kidding. At first I thought the one had cake in her teeth, and then somebody else said what I was thinking, and she said "Oh, um, that's not cake," and spit on the ground.
And it's not just them.
Every guy except one on the baseball team chews, and the coach even lets them do it at practice.
The guys who work in the school bookstore chew during every free block they spend there.
That familiar wallet-line in the back of every guys pants has frequently been joined by a suspicious round tin in the other back pocket.
It's disgusting.
I mean, we've all seen the pictures of furry tongues and cancerous jaws that had to be removed, but once again it seems that health education has failed, as a new epidemic sweeps among young people.
It's not that I have the answers, but it's obvious that the current curriculum is just ineffective. Or maybe it's that young people don't understand the consequences of their decisions.
Or maybe they just don't care?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
