Thursday, January 22, 2009

Teenagers on a ship often times become a marauding band of pack animals. While they may make initial contact through the teen club, there is some innate teen call that my over 30 ears cannot hear, that soon has everyone between the ages of 13 and 18 meeting on a passenger stairwell.

At my age and body discomfort level there seems to be at least 53 more conducive meeting places on the ship. The bleachers on deck 14, one of the game rooms, deck 7 outside, just to name a few. But for some reason cruise after cruise the teens find the stairwells. The same stairwells that teetering, older passengers are trying to descend or ascend; and it’s here that they sit for hours on end discussing the day’s important issues. Who likes who, how late can they stay out, and how many soft serve ice creams they’ve eaten already today.

This week’s cruise is particularly animalistic. A group of teens that were on the Jewel with us last year have joined forces with the classic suburban teen group. One of the boys from the returning group has recently learned the word clit. And repeatedly shouted it out during our first improv show. Upon running into them on the stairs he told me I had dropped my clit on the floor. Thank god, I was wondering where it went. One of the other boys told Rance that his name in Syrian means to smoke pot. So Rance is a big hit with this group. Ashley, a member of the suburban group asked me if I thought she was different than any other girl I’d met, and if I’d always remember her. The fact that I’m blogging about her should confirm her belief that I do in fact think she’s “different”.

Rumor has it that one of the returning kids (he’s about 13) was trying to play slots in the casino and when he was approached and asked to leave he opened up his wallet and offered up $100 to the casino host to stay. Ahh today’s youth…they really have learned a lot from our leaders.

A couple of weeks ago Rance watched in horror as a young man who looked to be about 15 berated one of the outdoor cooks who was trying to make him an omelet. This kid who looked like a buff Woody Allen berated the cook for the amount of oil he was using, for not cooking it right, for not using cheddar when it was specifically asked for. And when the chef tried to remake the omelet to the kid’s satisfaction, the kid yelled even louder when the chef tried to put white cheese in his omelet, when clearly that could not be cheddar cheese. Cheddar is yellow! The kid had never heard of white cheddar and wasn’t going to hear of any of the excuses. It was such an ugly display of human behavior Both Rance and I wanted to smack that kid which told us what kind of parents we would be.

I contrast all of this with the family that had the three nicest kids you can imagine. Nina, Zach and Max. Rance had met them the day before when their mom asked Rance to sing Happy Birthday to Nina, for her 18th birthday. And then on New Years Eve they all came into Spinnaker Lounge. Zach noticed Larrance first and came over to tell him how great he thought his music was and to say thanks for performing. And then he looked around and realized the whole cast was standing there. His excitement was radiant. He was literally tongue tied and adorable. He went back and joined his family but he kept looking over at all of us so I went over to talk to him.

And that’s when I got to meet not only him but his older sister Nina and younger brother Max. So polite and so not filled with that teenage angst that is normally prevalent among the pack. I asked them a few questions about themselves and they in turn asked me questions about the show and what it was like to live on the ship.

Then I turned to their mom and asked what was the occasion for them to all be on this cruise? Her expression changed and she said her husband had died in April and it had been a really tough year for all of them and she just wanted to celebrate New Years in a completely different way to get a fresh new start. And as I fumbled for the right words and the “I’m sorrys” came out, I looked again at these kids, and saw that in their father’s death they had learned the secret to life…living each day and appreciating everything they had.

Truth be told these are the kids I will always remember…I’ll probably forget about Ashley once the next set of teenagers arrive on board. But I’ll remember Zach, Max and Nina because in the hoard of pack animals they stood out for being truly different.