“i am so scene, with my dinosaur shirt and my polka dot headband and my short choppy black hair and my cigarettes and my obnoxious attitude <3 kiss my ass kthxbai see you at the hardcore show tomorrow.”* Monday, May 19 2008

Have you ever heard of being “Scene”? It refers to subcultures and movements, mostly centered on the alternative music scene. “Scenesters” are people “on the scene.” I think for most of them, it has just as much to do with the look and fashion as it does with the music. These people are usually elitists with extreme superiority complexes.

In my random exploration of the Internet, I came across this handy website called wikiHow, which is a “is a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual.” (Go there – I promise it will be hours of fun.) So I’m exploring wikiHow and what do I come across but an article titled “How to Be a Scene Kid.” I couldn’t believe how accurate it was (and also, how many “Scenesters” I knew.) So I give you the article.

Special Notes:

- Pay special attention to the part about how scene kids take pictures of themselves. Then reference your own Facebook page and notice any of your friends who have several photo albums of themselves and their friends, looking “scene.”

- Just to make it clear, I am NOT scene. At all. Not even a little bit. And honestly, I think people who do the things mentioned below are, well, let’s just say that I re-wrote this sentence many times and I’ll simply say that they are not my particular favorites.

- Question: Does anyone know anyone who is “scene” that is not between the ages of about 13 to 22? I see a lot of scenesters around, but they tend to be on the youthful side, very angry at their dads and often with nothing to do on a Tuesday afternoon. Are there 40 year-old scenesters out there? 50 year olds?

How to Be a Scene Kid

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

While a contemporary term for hipster or bohemian and other insiders of art related movements, scene kids are also associated with listening to screamo, techno, punk rock, indie rock, and hip hop, or other forms of unconventional music. If you want to be a scene kid, here are some suggestions to help you along your way…(Click title to read entire article.)

*Title quote from UrbanDictionary.com.

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N.M.B. Tuesday, Apr 29 2008

When I was a junior in college, one of my sorority sisters passed away suddenly. She had a heart problem and one morning she just didn’t wake up. Since that devastating day, every t-shirt, headband, and moving speech coming out of our chapter has included a tribute to her. She was a year younger than I, and this year her peers will graduate. Their senior bar crawl shirts had her initials on the sleeve, of course. But I find myself wondering if her tributes will move on along with the class of 2008. Sure, maybe a thing or two will bear her name next year, as the class of 2009 was initiated while she was still alive. But after them? Soon our Little 500s, our bar crawls, and our fund raisers will not remember her. She will live on with those who knew her, but the chapter will forget.

How do you stop a group from forgetting, when you’re not even sure it’s their duty to remember?

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Rearview Mirror Wednesday, Oct 10 2007

Sometimes I wish college never happened. That there were no memories from those 4 years. Kind of in the same way I wish I’d never been to Europe. If I’d never visited Paris, I wouldn’t think about it, dream about it, remember its smells and sites and feelings. Lately I’ve been missing college in the same way – the feeling of walking into class, the leaves in an Indiana autumn, having coffee with Jordan, staying up all night to write a paper…If all that had never happened, I wouldn’t miss them so much, long for them so much, crave it all so much.

I feel like I’ve lost my two best friends.

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