This is your brain, This is your brain in skinny jeans going *SPLAT*

This weekend I went to a Ska show, like I have done hundreds of times in the past, only this time everyone got younger but me. It was like time stopped and I grew older and no one else did. All the concert goers were looking at me like I was there chaperoning one of the other tweens. It was so bad I saw kids hiding their joint when they saw me standing there. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed having the entire bar to myself and never having to wait for a drink, but it is a lot of responsibility to be solely responsible for the tips the bar tender takes home. (I am fully aware how UN-punk rock it is that I worried about the bartenders tips, only more proof I was too old to be there).

While I was there pondering how the country will function when everyone is 17 year old... I looked down and saw a kid about to lose his lunch/pills/40 oz/whatever. He was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands looking pretty miserable. I could not help but notice the wall of skinny boys in their uber trendy tank tops, skinny jeans and bad hair cuts that surrounded him. They literally formed a wall so that no one would trip over him. One kid was even rubbing his back telling him that he would be fine. I don't know about you, but the code in my circle growing up was that if you couldn't handle what you ingest, you deserve to be left. I could call any of my friends right now and they would say "I would maybe have put him in the corner but hell no am I babysitting him all night". This was the code we lived by and if you didn't want to be deserted in your time of need, then you made sure you could handle whatever it was you felt like using.

I started feeling a little sad for the world. It is not that I wanted to see the kid get left by his friends (or maybe I did), but it is more about the lessons our friends teach us. All that kid learned from that experience is that when he f*cks up, someone will be there to rub his back and tell him that things will be ok. This is not a lesson that will take him far in life. My friends taught each other some serious life lessons that our parents didn't have a chance at teaching us. Our methods were effective and it generally only took 1 bad experience to change your negative behavior.

• If you act stupid, you deserve to have no friends.

• If you say "take your best shot".... brace yourself to get fully punched in the face.

• If you fall asleep first, on the only couch to sit on, be prepared to have a penis Sharpied to your face in the morning.

• If you are too messed up to realize that you are not wearing any pants, it is not my job to tell you.

Just as I was mourning the toughness of our nation, the concert started and some kids rushed the stage and dived off. When the 3rd kid took his leap of faith, the crowd parted and he ate it, face first into the concrete. My faith was finally renewed that at least some of these kids would walk away having learned a big lesson.

Before taking a risk, hope for the best....but be prepared in case you hit the concrete and have to wipe the blood off your face with your Ed Hardy tank top.