Spencer and the Party Paranoia

So there's plans for a giant party at the end of the summer, with a good portion of the group there. Gi-normously huge. Food, drinks, games, movies, entertainment. Singing "Kumbaya" around the campfi-- err, chimenea. (Okay, maybe not that.) The whole nine yards, enough to sufficiently blow the summer out with a bang. It'll be awesome.

And, as original plans go, it's to be overnight. Because just the sheer factor of everyone gathered together for a night and waking up the next morning adds 50 Awesome Points.

Of course, my parents are getting all uptight and paranoid about this. Adolescent guys and girls sleeping in the same general area? Egads, that's horrible!

And this irrational paranoia is starting to irritate me.

Yes, I see their foremost concern. Because we're at the top of hormone season, they're certain that we've been completely run over by them, and our brains are now swirling masses of chemical imbalances. They're afraid that with the concept of sleeping close, we'll go off and have some massive sex party. After all, we're teenagers. We've got no common sense.

For god's sake, can't they open up their eyes and wake up? If they'd been paying attention at all to my verve and energy towards my abstinence brochure in health, my comments on how I'm far seperated from society, generally who I am, they'd realize that I don't think sex should be happening anywhere near my age. Which means that I'm not going to be a hypocrite and go out and totally shame my name, and I'm certainly not going to let any of my friends do it, because that's part of my responsibility as a friend, as I see it. Keep them thinking with their brains, not their hormones.

Yes, I understand where they're coming from. I respect and greatly treasure that they're looking out for me. However, there needs to be a point where they acknowledge that they're being too paranoid and allow me to do some things they're concerned about. I have no intent of ever doing drugs. I'm willing to postpone driving for a few years (even though I'm fairly certain I'd have no problem with it). I'll even tear apart my entry slip to the SuperUltraMegaDeath Spikey Saw Blade Flaming Pit Trap of Doom Pirahna InstaKill Bike Jump contest. All of these I can clearly see concern with. But having teenagers of both sexes sleep in the same house when my friends and I are so clearly pro-abstinence should not be a problem.

Sure, there's the argument that we could end up 'caught in the moment' and lose ourselves. But that could only happen if there were initiative. Nobody in my group, even if their brain is 85% hormones, is going to end up anywhere near that point, because a) with 11 people, if one of them starts toeing the line, the other 10 are going to give them absolute hell and smack them around until they back off, b) once again, we have no intention of having sex anywhere in the near future (read: at least the next two years), so to get to a stage where it seems like an option is nigh impossible, c) we actually do have modesty, and the most we'll possibly get to that night is snogging, albeit very discreetly, and d) none of us is stupid. We know the possible consequences, and besides, feel that there's absolutely no place for it in our relationships right now. Finally, e) all of us respect my family enough to realize that if we did something like that, it would cross so many boundaries, it's unimaginable. Unthinkable. We would never do that.

Quoth Nick: "yeah, there will be some snogging at the party. but it won't be horrible. Sette and I do kiss, but in private; at Ryn's we only kissed once. KJ and Ryn kissed a couple of times only. We have so much peer pressure AGAINST sex, that there will be no problem. No matter how many raging hormones are flaring up, the others will smack us into shape. Nothing will happen. There's just no chance of it"

We're not egotistical "world revolves around me if they don't like it tough" fools. We know that it'd be objectional for Dan-- or anyone-- to be surrounded by people passionately snogging for hours on end. Which is simply solved: we don't snog for hours on end. Nobody would want that. That'd just be... eugh. No. If we do kiss, it'll be discreet, because it's obvious nobody wants to see it. The rest will probably be holding hands or arms around shoulders.

And here's a thought: We're here as a group, not as couples. We'll interact with everyone, and will be occupied with that, as well as games or movies or Kumbaya or whatever else has our fancy. When it comes time to sleep, we'll probably stay up for hours on end talking, and then maybe get two hours of sleep, but nobody is going to flock away and mingle with the other sex. It's just not done. We're responsible, and if there's one thing I've tried to illustrate with this entry, it's that sex is not going to happen.

I wish my parents would trust us.

Yes, there's possibility it would never happen anyway. But it sure would be nice to have the benefit of the doubt, to be trusted regardless of whether or not it would work.

If it's not overnight, it'll be from some afternoon-ish time until midnight or something. That wouldn't be so horrible either, but it seems like some of the awesome would fade a tad.

Who knows?