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What's Your Outlet?
by Coyotek
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Why Do We Need the Kids Anyway? by Perceptor II
Toys to Toon by Dark Star
What Do These Symbols Represent? by Henrius Prime
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Columbine hasn't left our rear-view mirror for long, before we run right into Santee.
And these are just the two most recent.
Over the last several years, we have heard about numerous school shootings. So many dead. So many more injured. And always, we're left to wonder why.
And once again, I hear a description of the killer. A quiet kid. Didn't have many friends. Kept to himself. Was teased. Was picked on. Was bullied.
And, once again, I come back to this truth:
I was that kid.
I was all of these kids.
I was scrawny. I was picked on. I heard all the names; nerd, dork, geek, Arvid, Urkel ... I heard 'em all. Constantly. For as long as I went to school.
I look back on my years in school, particularly from 6th through 10th grade, as some of the most difficult years in my life.
Yet, I never even thought about committing any such act.
Not once.
Never.
I look back on my childhood. At those times when I just felt so angry. At those days when I would come home, trying to hold in how I felt.
And in looking back, I found that I had violent outlets for my anger.
I was 5 or so. I had a collection of Matchbox cars. Dozens of them. And I had access to a hammer.
On any given day, you could look in my room and find pieces of broken cars. Cracked plastic. The occasional stray tire.
That was an outlet for my stress.
I remember the old Atari 2600. I remember all the controllers that I smashed in anger, after losing a game.
That was an outlet for my stress.
I lashed out at things. Not people. Things.
Today, I still have moments. Heck, who doesn't? I no longer smash things.
These days, I take a walk. A jog. I listen to music. Loud music. People say I'll go deaf eventually. I don't worry about that now.
These are my current outlets.
One thing I've learned, is that kids today have more stress than what people my age (20s) had at that time. More frustration. More anger. More violent tendencies.
All that pent-up anger; where does it go? Time heals all wounds, but it can be very slow. Sometimes, for our own sanity, we can't wait for time.
What can we do to let off steam? I say, do something. Anything. Just find a way to get it out of your system.
I hear critics complain that videogames are too violent. That TV shows are too violent. That kids get ideas from all this.
I say it's just the opposite.
I say these videogames are an outlet. I say these TV shows are an outlet.
I played those games. I watched those shows. I came away feeling ... calm.
Sometimes I went too far. Sometimes a joystick would break. Never did I go away wanting to kill someone.
From 4:00 to 5:00, every day after school, I would watch Transformers & G.I. Joe. At the time, two highly violent kid shows. I grew up watching shows like that.
Later, I got hooked on Mortal Kombat. On Samurai Shodown. On Tekken. Fighting games. Very detailed. Very graphic.
Today, I jog. I listen to music. I write. I write a lot, these days. I have creative outlets for my stress from the real world.
And as I watch another horror story unfold at a school, I ask myself:
What did those kids have?
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