Stop Trying to Be Deep, Penny!

May 5, 1996

To Bethany:

Ned and Nina are going out. It's okay though. I like Joe now. He is SO what I'm looking for. He's great! I hope we get together. Tess is working on it. Tess and I were just in a big fight that we resolved--what's new-- and I am beginning to get sooooo annoyed with Penny! She is trying to be something she's not. It's hard to explain but she's losing a lot of friends by doing it. But in some ways, that's her point. She tries to be deep-- as in like deep speeches. Ultra-feminist total individual. And by doing this she says stupid things that no one-- I repeat NO ONE in their right mind would ever agree with. I want to tell her but I know it won't help. It would just prove her point that she doesn't care what people think of her. Well, if that's what she wants I won't give her support, but I'll give her some amount of respect. 

--Corey 

What's great about 13 year old Corey is that she rebounds FAST. It's cool. Ned's now taken? Cool. I will move on to Joe! And also: Tess will make it HAPPEN. Who knew how much power she had??

I think it's so interesting how angry I get at Penny's "feminist" and "individual" views and opinions. I mean, I feel like even at 13, if anyone's feminist and individual its me. I wonder if I'm uncomfortable with Penny expressing some things I feel? Breaking the rules of middle school?

Or maybe she's just really annoying and trying to hard.

Unexpected Wisdom

November 22.1993 continued

... You know how Piper's parents are divorced? Well she's always said she hated her step-mom but today she told me that she would like her if she wasn't her step-mom. I was amazed! 

Piper's parents were the only ones who were divorced in my circle of friends. Her experience was divorce was, therefore, representative of my entire understanding of divorce. Piper's step-mom was bad. she was a bitch. (I also never met her). And though blonde haired, athletic, vivacious Piper was not the most likely ten year old to have highly evolved thinking, in this case she proved to be more mature than any of us. 

I feel proud of her, reading this entry. And though certainly in reading this journal I will encounter many fights and mean words said between Piper and I, for just this moment, she's something of a role model. 

Even on my best days, I'm rarely so diplomatic and evolved.