mirror, mirror

Today is my son's 15th birthday. I bought him a copy of Pink Floyd's CD, "The Wall." That album is getting pretty old now, but it's a classic. He loves it. He is in a band; he plays rhytm and lead guitar, and writes some songs in the thrash and speed metal genre. That's my boy!

My sixteen-year-old daughter, now, this is where we get into the "mirror, mirror" Twilight Zone. She is so much like me, yet so different - like looking in a mirror. Let's look at her latest adventure to illustrate my point:

To start off with, she is extremely outspoken - something I never was when I was in school - and a couple of days ago, this guy passing her in the hallway called her "skank." Of course, her response was that he was "going to get his ass kicked." A few more words were exchanged, and later in the lunchroom, my daughter poured a little juice on his shirt. (She really likes to piss people off.) So he gets up and pours his entire chocolate milk over her head! HAH! Sorry, I just think that is so funny. Anyway, she starts chasing this dude around - now he really will get his ass kicked - but the school principal is there. Busted! The principal starts yelling for them to stop; she ignores him, she's "in the zone." Bad move on her part.

My ex (her mom) gets a call from the principal, goes in for "the meeting," and my girl gets in-school suspension. The principal wanted to give her at-home suspension, but where's the punishment in that?

Now, this girl got in trouble last year, too. Swearing, fighting, disrupting class - but she got good grades. And the principal is her math teacher as well; in fact, he says that in all his years of teaching, she is the brightest math student he has ever had. He says that overall, she isn't really so much bad as "naughty." It's a matter of degree.

I was thinking about what to say to this troubled teenager; I mean, I didn't do these things. I did drugs. Then I realized that this behavior is her drug. I'm not saying the she should be doing drugs - not at all. But this does help me get an insight into the nature of why she chooses this particularly extreme form of release.

But then, I could be wrong.