Lots of times here, when people are talking in class and referencing things, someone will jump in and say “Oh my god guys, that’s so emo!” as a way to completely discredit whatever was said.

But… the things they are talking about are never emo. It’s like these kids grew up and never knew a true emo person, just the Wal-Mart and TRL version of emo. So they’re kind of on track, but their comments are always off. Emo is a very rare quality, and they all want to prove that they know what it is.

Like calling someone who has a hole in his or her jeans and blonde highlights a punk.

It confounds me. How could they never know an emo person? I knew tons of “emo” kids! All the boys I knew were in bands, not sports teams. What did my present classmates do if they didn’t hang out at coffe shops and smoke cigarettes (without parental knowledge, of course). How can they all be oblivious to this subculture, but think they know what it is?

Then I realized:

Because they weren’t emo. And I was.

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I’ve said emo enough times in those last few paragraphs that I will never have to type it from these little finger tips again.

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Some of my classmates were/are, as far as I can tell, mainstream suburbia people. My brother is one of these people. He goes to a rich private school for WASPS, with the Bush nieces. Polo shirts and cargo shorts. Boys have names like Whitney David Negley Harrington, IV.

Austin categorizes people into two types: goth or not-goth. There is no middle road for him.

Goths’ main feature is that they are pale. If you are even a little bit pale, and not wearing a denim mini-skirt, then you are probably goth.

“I’m kind of pale. Am I a goth, Austin?”
“You’re…. well….. no, I guess you’re not a goth.” He really had to think about it, though.