Why I Am Not Your Average Teenager: By Alex Clark
It all starts off with my nephew, the natural satirist, Alex who turned eighteen in February and who will be a freshman at BYU next year:
When Cjane asked me to blog about how I was different from the average teenager, many reasons popped into my head. Not to say that I think I’m better than everyone else, but I definitely wouldn’t call me just an average person. You can take a look at some of my accomplishments from this list, and then you’ll understand. (And I only made two of them up.)
- I performed a moving rendition of Funny Feet in my Kindergarten assembly
- In third grade I won this one reflections contest
- I ran a three minute mile once
- In the Clark family we have this thing called the “Human Spirit Award” which some deserving person is awarded each July. The HSA score currently looks like this: Me: 1, Jesse: 0. Oh, and I was 12 when I won it (but who’s really keeping track?)
- One time I listened to the “we are the world” song without shoving pins in my ears (I’m still not convinced it isn’t an SNL digital short)
- I might be the first person in the history of this blog to jinx the Lakers and cause them to lose to the Suns (it’s definitely worth a try)
- I’ve never drank soda in my life. Ever.
Some of you may also know me as the nephew that (regrettably) would leave comments about Subway’s “5 dollar footlong” and 2% milk. I say regrettably because once comments were temporarily deleted, I had to sign up for the BlogFrog to keep commenting. To this day I am still haunted by the BlogFrog, which relentlessly sends me emails suggesting I blog about motherhood or flowers. I think it’s safe to say that I’m the only male teen on earth who receives emails from the BlogFrog. GO AWAY BLOGFROG!! NO, I DON’T WANT TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN FREE HOUSECLEANING FOR A MONTH! (Hopefully they’ll see this.)
Another thing that separates me from the rest of the pack is that I always try my best, but never let worldly or unimportant goals get in my way. Here is an actual excerpt from my chemistry journal, which is a response to the question: “What is one thing that you want to be remembered for? Why?”
“I want to be remembered for being a good student and for always trying my hardest. And for my awesome abs. Every day before I got to bed I do 200 push-ups with my perfect push-up, then I do 300 sit ups and ab crunches. So I hope you are noticing.”
But when I really think about it, I don’t know what makes me different from an average teenager, because I don’t believe there is such a thing as an “average teenager.” We all have our strengths and we each bring different things to the table. For me, one strength that I have is the ability to write. I especially enjoy the field of sports writing, and one day I hope to be a sports writer. But I still have a long way to go, and a lot more to learn.
Like how to write good endings.
On My Other Blogs Today: