If you are a teenager, I can understand your desire to be “cool.” After all, nothing is more important that status amongst your peers. But once you have entered into your 20s (or the rest of your life, if you will) what’s “cool” is determined not by something you wear, a band you like or how many followers you have on TikTok, it is instead about your behavior and what signals it sends to others.
Here is a list of things that are NO LONGER cool (or Dope, or Sweet or Sick) after you have left behind the hallowed halls of high school:
“sux” – while this has become a broadly used euphemism for something bad (or uncool) no one stops to think about its original meaning. While all of Trump’s administration “sux” only one or two probably actually suck.
Wearing tee shirts that originated as social media memes like “Trophy Husband” or “Six Seven” or “I Had Potential.” Funny on a 10-year-old, but after that...?
Turning up the music in your vehicle until it rattles passing windows. You muse: “Bet they think I am SO cool for listening to this music...” when in fact the victims of your callousness are really thinking “What a complete and utter asshole.” Twice as true if you are on a motorcycle or e- bike.
Making misogynistic comments about women. They are not toys or playthings - they are human beings with the same sensitivities as anyone else. The sooner you treat them as partners the sooner you will realize they are every bit as smart and emotionally mature as you are… perhaps even more so.
Fighting. Yes, we live in a world of annoying folks who probably deserve a punch in the nose for saying something stupid/rude/offensive. But while throwing a punch might feel like the right reaction, trust me when I tell you, it will only make things worse (especially when you find out he was a North Charleston golden gloves finalist!)
Carrying a gun. In my entire life I have not once heard of a person who pulled a gun to solve a problem and it got, well, SOLVED. All you are really doing is scaring the shit our of everyone around you. Yes, the 2nd amendment, I know. But in fact, it gives permission to “A well- regulated Militia” not every yokel who can pull a trigger.
Getting drunk (then loud). Very little in life is more annoying that finally getting into that great restaurant only to find yourself next to a table where a bunch of drunks are yelping it up laughing at everything like it was the funniest thing EVER said. You indeed also paid to be there, but you have NO right to make everyone around you miserable. Same goes for talking out loud at the movies or concert halls.
“Dude, Bro, Boy” Your vocabulary needs to broaden to include age-appropriate euphemisms. I stopped responding to Dude, Bro, Boy about 50 years ago. Plus, there something very right with calling folks older than you “sir” or “ma’m.”