For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 16, 2017

poor Michael Patterson being hard on himself… kind of like Charlie Brown

I am encouraged to see Michael rage, “Why can’t I just be boring an’ ordinary like everyone else?!!!” Poor Michael is alienated because he is better than everyone else. That’s a little different from the standard preteen angst.

It’s interesting to see Michael as the class clown. Growing up, I only have recollections of teenage Michael (he’s a bit older than I am), and he was a much more typical kid- fun-loving, but more thoughtful than he seemed.

I think we’re about to meet Martha MacRae.

Calm down, Michael, one of your best friends is at the camp with you and he likes you even when you aren’t being a clown.

Everybody enjoys a little pity party every once in awhile!

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,think I’ll go eat worms…big fat juicy ones, little slimy skinny ones,hope they don’t have germs!

This is how I felt in high school

Nobody likes me,Everybody hates me,Guess I’ll eat some worms…Short fat slimy ones,Long thin curly ones,See how they wiggle and squirm

As a kid, I said those very things to myself and asked the same kind of questions. It took many years to accept that it was O.K. to be different.

Wow, does this take me back. Thinking that everybody just pretends to like me. Little did I realize as a teenager, that just about everybody thinks that about themselves at some point in their lives.

Everyone is different. Just that those who stand out get to be hammered down or cut off to match up with the others.

Lynn’s Notes:

This is me at the age of 9 or 10. I was the class clown. I remember a teacher using that old cliché: “We’re not laughing at you, we’re laughing with you.” and I wanted to say, “No! I want you to laugh AT me!” I often thought kids hung with me because I was the one most likely to take a dare, break the rules, and get myself in trouble. I guess I was. It was a way to be where the action was!

The universal social quandary! “What does a person like me do with people like you in a place like this?”

Ah, the changing years—-beginning to see yourself how others see you—-one of the steps of growing up.

Good grief, Michael! You’re a male acting like a girl! Snap out of it!

Boy, am I familiar with today’s soliloquy. One problem with being a class clown is that nobody takes you seriously, even when you’re being serious.

Martha in T minus 2

He’s finally catching on!

Existential crisis #?

Is it kinda sad that I’m in my early twenties yet I still feel like this?