When Can I Have Fun Again?

You know, a lot of people tell my parents that I'm a real credit to them. Just a couple of weeks ago we ran into my old headmaster (who now runs a restaurant; go figure) and he couldn't stop telling my mother how well I'd grown up and how well-spoken and intelligent and charming I am.

Yes, I know. Rather hard to believe, isn't it?

The thing is, for all that I seem to come across as being all clever and what-not (which still confuses me, quite frankly, because I say some bloody stupid things sometimes), you'd think I'd be managing university without 50% of my coursework thoroughly kicking my ass. I guess I'm just really not cut out for this journalism lark. Not even this trusty bottle of Neuro Sonic I have next to me is helping, it's just that bad.

Not that it's really doing anything other than keeping my caffeine levels at the normal 'far too high' setting, but you know, it's still claiming the whole 'mental performance in a bottle' thing. Might as well humour it.

Also, no, there's not really a point to this post, but I'm meant to be writing a feature article, and since the ability to do so is eluding me (and has been for the past week and a half) I am procrastinating, and you're just going to have to suffer for it, okay? I don't even like this any more than you do, but it's either this or I dissolve into a wibbly puddle of goo in the middle of the library, and no one wants that.

Anyway, going back to my initial vague tangent, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has the feeling that their parents think that they're a lot more intelligent than they feel they are. I mean, I think my mother is fairly sure that I'm some sort of genius, especially in the creative writing department. I'm... really not.

And that isn't just self-deprecation by the way. I mean, I can write, yeah, but I'm not the next Tolkein or Pratchett or anything, and that's just on a technical level. As for entertainment value, I guess I like what I write (mostly), but I don't expect that many other people to. I just like writing.

I suppose parents just like to put their children on a pedestal, to push them to be special in some way. It's not all that surprising I guess. I mean, I'm sure we all want to be recognised for something. I know I'd like to at least be good at something that didn't involve me sitting in front of a computer screen, but since that's not likely to happen anytime soon, I'm not all that fussed about it. I suppose it carries over to children eventually, if you have them. You wanted to be special, now you want them to be special. I guess I understand that.

At least I can still go save the world in video games. That counts, right?

Oh, I don't know. Here's a picture of a hedgehog in an egg cup:

I think his expression perfectly sums up the expected reaction to this post.