The Teenage Years

What's so funny?

What are you writing about?

I'm writing about something I saw earlier this morning.

Really? Do you keep a journal?

Yes, I do.

Every weekend I write about things that happened during the week.

What does he write about in his journal? things that happened during the week

How long you've been doing it?

I've been doing it fairly regularly since high school.

Are you going to turn it into a book?

I don't know.

Maybe I will someday but for now it's just for me.

To turn something into something else means to transform or rework it, from one thing into another.

So what was so interesting about what you saw this morning?

I was in the same coffee shop I usually go to and a group of teenagers came in.

I couldn't help watching them and trying to hear some of their conversation.

That must have been interesting.

Yes, it was.

The more I watched them the more I realized how glad I am that I don't have to go through that stage of life again.

So it brought back some memorizes?

Yes, it did.

It was so clear how uncomfortable some of them were, yet they were pretending to have a good time.

At least, that's how it seemed to me.

Why do you think they were pretending?

It was just the way they smiled and laughed.

It seemed unnatural and overdone, as if they were bad actors.

It seemed to him that some of them weren’t really having a good time.

Click on the correct choice.  It seemed to him that some of them were pretending to have a good time.

A couple of the boys were really awkward around the girls, and two of the girls were wearing too much makeup.

I had to stop myself laughing.

Yes, I can imagine it.

I can remember wanting to be popular when I was in high school.

Now that you mention it, it wasn't a great time, though I had some fun too.

I guess it wasn't so bad at the time, except when I was preparing for my university entrance examinations.

Yes, that was awful.

My parents put tons of pressure on me, so I thought I was going to go crazy.

He is surprised to hear that his friend is keeping a journal.

This kind of journal is a collection of observations rather than personal experiences.

In his opinion, the way they interacted with each other was a bit unnatural and exaggerated.

What about girls?

Did you have any girlfriends?

There was one girl I had a crush on, but I thought she was interested in somebody else.

I didn't find out until much later that she was interested in me too.

It was a lost opportunity, one of many.

Really? you should become a writer or make a movie.

You have a great imagination.

To be honest, it's much easier to image things than actually do things.

You can say that again.

In his opinion, the way they interacted with each other was a bit unnatural and exaggerated.

What was one of his lost opportunities? He didn't realize that the girl he had crush on was interested in him.