Trying On A Face

Nyssa, 2001. Age 15.

"Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own." ~ Logan Pearsall Smith, "Age and Death," Afterthoughts, 1931

Right smack dab in the middle of adolescence. Hormones raging. Angst at an all time high. Ups and downs. Friends one day, enemies the next, and back to friends the next. The boyfriends named "Chris", times three; or was it four. The broken hearts. The cheerleading and academics. The "scream defense" in basketball and "Run, Bob, Run" in softball. The losses and gains of friends and neighbors. The mother going through menopause while the daughter does puberty; (someone really should have warned us). The insect collections, with all her friends. The birthday parties. The banquets. The dances. The mailbox massacres. The goose kidnapping. The panties on the head pose and the mud mask Saturday nights. The "Glamour" party with boas, make-up, fancy hair on top and shorts, kneehighs and sneakers on bottom. These snippet pictures of adolescence slipped quietly into adulthood as Nyssa turned twenty two weeks ago. Looking back, I can say all in all, it wasn't all that bad and it certainly could have been a LOT worse. I think she has "found her face."

"O Adolescence, O Adolescence
I wince before thine incandescence . . .
When anxious elders swarm about
Crying "Where are you going?", thou answerest "Out," . . .
Strewn! All is lost and nothing found
Lord, how thou leavest things around! . . .
Ah well, I must not carp and cavil
I'll chew the spinach, spit out the gravel,
Remembering how my heart has leapt
At times when me thou didst accept
Still, I'd like to be present, I must confess,
When thine own adolescents adolesce.
~ Ogden Nash (1902-1971),
"Tarkington, Thou Should'st Be Living in This Hour,"

Submission for PhotoFriday topic "adolescence". (end of post)