Thursday, February 23, 2012


I have never felt more out of place then at my friend, _____’s 14th birthday party. It was, shall we say, culturally diverse. I should have known from the second I walked up that it would be crazy. As soon as I got up there______ comes running out in black fishnets, a neon green tutu, and a skimpy top and tackled me. It had been a while, so she was pretty excited to see me I guess. When we got inside her house the smell of smoke and alcohol was almost stifling, but I figured it was just the adults drinking. But quite honestly, I don’t think I could tell the adults from the kids. _______ had this bizarre cup in her hand, and she says to me “Here, have some of this, it’s really yummy!” And of course, my naive little brain didn’t think for a minute that it could even possibly contain alcohol. Because a house full of responsible adults wouldn’t let their 14 year old daughter have alcohol, right? Wrong; that cup had vodka in it. It tasted so strong and so terrible that I could hardly swallow it. I coughed and said “What was that?!” And she just looked at me and started laughing. Then everyone else started laughing too, and I suddenly felt very small.

 Another very intimidating aspect of this party was the dancing. If the headmaster of my high school was offended by the school dances, he would have thrown up of he had been there. I just sat in the corner with the only other white girl at the party and we talked about how weird we both felt. It was only after ______ tried to teach us how to grind when we decided that we should call it a night. _______ and I are still very close friends, and we still talk, but I haven’t been back to her house since then.

3 comments:

  1. Tasha:

    Your tale, harrowing though it may be, is told with effective humor, style, and energy, and makes for a really entertaining and personal comical/ self-depracating anecdote (like Sedaris'). I love your use of cheeky lines like: "Because a house full of responsible adults wouldn’t let their 14 year old daughter have alcohol, right?" that help create a mood of playful mockery and sarcasm. Good job!

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    1. Tasha,
      This reminds me of last year's book of a Separate Peace. It reminds me of the boys' losing of innocence as they change from a conservative all boys school to going to parties, smoking, and doing different activities that were meant for "grown ups" or that simply didn't cross your mind as something that you would come to experience because of not having the realization of your own coming of age. I think that some people already went through this exposure, some are still going through it, and some have not yet seen it.
      Great way to make the reader sympathize with you by using sarcasm, hoping that the reader has the same moral standards as you do. I liked readying this post :)

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  2. Tasha,
    Your post is really intruiging and really conveys you bewilderment at entering this environment. The communication of your feelings and emotions is great. The only thing that I would have liked to see more of would be the setting for the party, I still don't know very much about the other characters in the story.

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