When I was in middle school, I remember the style was punk rock and hard rock, and we wore cargo pants and tee shirts, occasionally a backwards ball cap and we would skateboard to school. Our obsessions would be over DC, Fallen, Vans, Etnies, or some other skater shoes, buying the latest board or seeing the next Green Day concert.
From this, it quickly spiraled downward to Nikki Minaj, Drake, Wiz Khalifa, and these other ridiculous artists. The trends have quickly dived to flat brim hats, sagging nautical jeans, six-size oversize shirts, calf socks, skinny jeans, and a host of other styles I am still trying to wrap my brain around.
Now please do not misunderstand me -- I was a punk skater, and still hold the style as best I can. I even wore cargo pants and quicksilver shirts on a nearly daily basis until my last set of hand me down 90's cargo pants were retired. I do, however, take pride in continuing to wear some cut off shorts made from my 6th grade cargo pants (They were super baggy then). Again though, styles come and go, and this is understandable. Look back at what our parents wore. Strangler jeans, huge thick framed glasses, and everyone combed their hair to the side and all this... You get the point. It was cool once upon a time.
But one thing I cannot wrap my head around is the vocabulary. I mean, when my parents were kids they used words like "mental", or "mad". When I was in school, we stilled called stuff "Rad", "Killer", and "Wicked".
Now, however, we are using terminology such as "Swag" and this new acronym..."YOLO". Seriously?...I am afraid so. To the left is a picture I came across on FaceBook and shared. Thinking about it , I feel as if this is an excellent example of what I am trying to portray.
The terminology "Mental" and "Mad" actually make sense when applied to their usage. If you were to ask someone "Are you mental?" It would refer to their state of mental health, their sanity, or their ability to make a comprehensive, intelligible decision. Asking someone "Are you mad?" would be equally sensical, as it has the same reference as "mental" would, like a Mad Hatter sort of Mad.
Now "Killer" would be another easy one. Something that is awesome would "Kill", it would refer in context to its awesomeness, as would the term "Wicked", as in saying something is "Wicked Cool". It is a level of cool, it is a level of awesome.
But Swag? Seriously? I know Radical and Wicked was getting a little close to crazy, but "swag"? The term refers to some indescribable level of "Cool" that is supposedly only understood in some non-existent thug life.
And YOLO? Please. I have but one response for those who say "YOLO".
Did you seriously think you were going to live twice? Did you think reincarnation was right around the corner? Some sort of XBox controller reset button? Just hold Control+Z, you can redo anything! Live Twice!!! Well, there is a response for that too...
Dwight is a very philosophical intellectual. We will likely ask for his input and analysis quite often here. But next time you have the irresistible urge to say "Swag" or "YOLO", take a bit of advice from Dwight.
Well, that concludes our first Splash of Sanity as we touch base on our first topic. Stay tuned, and feel free to leave feedback, suggestions, and insight. I am also happy to analyze or discuss any other topics you may find relevant, so please utilize the comments section, subscribe, and hope to hear from YOU as well!
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