Let Me Keep my Innocnece | Teen Ink

Let Me Keep my Innocnece

June 1, 2009
By PK4evr ELITE, Allen, Texas
PK4evr ELITE, Allen, Texas
105 articles 5 photos 107 comments

Favorite Quote:
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice, then watch everyone wonder how you did it!


“You have to lose your innocence- we’re going to make sure you do by the end of this year.” I’m a graduating freshman from high school, and this is the statement that I have heard on a daily basis. I’m not exaggerating- everywhere I go, it’s people cracking dirty jokes that I don’t understand. While trying to do homework in orchestra, while having a free day in math, I just stood (or sat) dumbfounded while everyone was laughing like crazy. In both situations, people tried to make me “lose my innocence.” I repeated the same statement that I have grown so tired of saying because of the number of times that I have had to say it- “I would like to, if possible, keep my innocence.” And I am known for this innocence. I’m so innocent that I don’t know what “that’s what she said” means- still don’t, hope I never do, and so far, no one’s attempts to explain have reached me. (Don’t explain it to me either.) Although some people claim to be proud of their perverted minds, I told them one thing- an innocent mind can always become perverted at any time, but a perverted mind can never become innocent.
Think of a pink elephant.
Okay, now try to not think of a pink elephant.
It’s hard, isn’t it? When you tell yourself to not think of something, doesn’t that just make us think about it even more? That’s why someone has to concentrate on the good things- and that’s why I know that if I understood the dirty jokes, I would crack them right and left like nobody’s business. But so far, I’ve been spared from doing that. I’ve been able to stand up for myself, to not give in to peer pressure and allow myself to understand these things. I don’t want to understand these things. I enjoy being pure- I may be missing out on something, but ignorance is bliss. A child doesn’t need to understand those things to be happy- and consider me childish, but neither do I. I’ve told everyone that I would like to keep my innocence. As much as people tried to change that, they haven’t been able to. But their efforts still bother me. Their efforts are not completely futile. And in the end, I feel like it’s made me kind of lose a sense of who I am.
I think that this difference in me from other ninth graders should allow me to say this one thing-
Let me keep my innocent mind.


The author's comments:
It may be kind of bad... written on a total whim. Oh well- hope I was persuasive.

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This article has 67 comments.


on Jul. 7 2012 at 1:30 pm
SmirkingSkull, New York, New York
0 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Sucking up to me won't spare you from my wrath." - Naomi Kimishima
"In the long run we are all dead"- Kenyes

It's funny to hear a freshy talking like this. Most of the ones I know are more perverted and "dirty minded" then the upperclassman. Unfortunatly, you will keep hearing these things as you contnue high school. You can't change what others say. You can either learn to understand it (which will happen evetually whether you want it to or not) or continue as you are- innocently bliss but apparently and obviously unhappy with it. If you weren't unhappy, why write this?

on May. 31 2012 at 7:44 am
CyberLydii GOLD, Dearborn Heights, Michigan
11 articles 0 photos 24 comments
I mean, I'm not saying lose your innocence, I'm just saying that it seems ignorant to even not acknowledge (sp?) what certain things mean.

on May. 31 2012 at 7:42 am
CyberLydii GOLD, Dearborn Heights, Michigan
11 articles 0 photos 24 comments
Wait, so you're forcing yourself to be ignorant? You may say it's not ignorance, but it is. You're refusing to learn what things mean.

on May. 9 2012 at 2:10 pm
TerraAnimusPatronus BRONZE, Eden, North Carolina
1 article 0 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
«You are either the best kept secret or just surrounded by blind people.»

I wish i could have back my Innocence

on Jul. 17 2011 at 5:49 pm
afterglow SILVER, Griffith, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
"When you see a mountain do you see a challenge, or a change of heart?"- me, 2010

I really agree with this and its not bad at all. I like this alot because its so true in today's society that even as young as fourth grade kids are becoming impure in a sense. I am glad you have been able to stand out for so long. Keep it up!

on Jun. 15 2011 at 12:45 am
DesertFox94 BRONZE, McDonough, Georgia
1 article 0 photos 33 comments

What makes you think saying a dirty joke makes one unclean or perverted?

What is your idea of innocent?


nnc97 said...
on May. 1 2011 at 6:05 pm
this is an awesome article. it doesnt make any sense how jus becuz one teen loses it, others are expected to do so also..

on Apr. 22 2011 at 2:12 pm
WrItEr2010 BRONZE, Durango, Colorado
4 articles 0 photos 15 comments
bravo! this is an awesome article!

Lilliterra said...
on Apr. 18 2011 at 5:15 pm

You have a point... (but if children got to choose what they ate... um.)

Except kids' thoughts aren't "phases", their thoughts are their thoughts. You could do the same thing to what grownups think about, and it would make them sound like robots too.


Blobthe15 said...
on Apr. 17 2011 at 4:35 pm

Whats so great about being a child anyways?

 Our thoughts are phases, we don't get to chose what we wear or eat or when we sleep or what we want to learn or what we want to spend our time on.

There's so little freedom, so even if it's a bad decision we want to be more like adults.


on Apr. 9 2011 at 4:01 pm
ilovedayna BRONZE, Story, Wyoming
3 articles 4 photos 77 comments

Favorite Quote:
i love you

you could also be more mature than everyone else... :)

on Apr. 7 2011 at 8:22 pm
RiverSong BRONZE, Baltimore, Maryland
3 articles 0 photos 100 comments

Keep your innocence.  I hope to keep what I have left of mine.  Congratulations on being one of the few members of society today who do not place unnecessary, irrelevant and just plain ignorant importance on idiotic, perverted topics.  Good for you!

Well-written, too, by the way. ;-)

~RiverSong


PK4evr ELITE said...
on Mar. 24 2011 at 9:38 pm
PK4evr ELITE, Allen, Texas
105 articles 5 photos 107 comments

Favorite Quote:
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice, then watch everyone wonder how you did it!

I can spell innocence, but for some reason, my eyes crossed weirdly that day and it came out wrong. (When I just typed innocence again, I typed the n in front of the e again some how by mistake.) I don't know how to get Teen Ink to fix it. I think I should do a piece about how typos can suck some time due to that. Thanks for noticing. I do know how to spell it, though. Always have, always will. Especially after this.

on Mar. 24 2011 at 9:09 pm
LAXdoubleK BRONZE, Aurora, Colorado
2 articles 0 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--which is:
Try to please everybody."
-Herbert Bayard Swope

I really enjoyed this but please try to spell Innocence" correctly in your title

on Feb. 25 2011 at 11:49 pm
T.R.Trevino BRONZE, San Diego, California
1 article 0 photos 21 comments

Favorite Quote:
'I cannot, nor will, recant anything, for it is neither safe nor wise to go against conscience.' -Martin Luther

I admire you. And your innocence. I only wish I had realized this earlier-like, back in sixth grade.

Don't you listen to anyone else, just keep your innocence, because you'll never get it back once you lose it.


on Feb. 24 2011 at 8:14 pm
courtneylouise1 SILVER, Bennett, Colorado
8 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"to cross the Rubicon river" - Julius Caesar

i love the way you veiw innocence, i only wish that i was more like you. i think that in your case you truly have things figured out, it is the others that are still searching for anwsers thats why they veiw innocence as a bad thing.they can't fully understand something that they don't have. i enjoyed reading your article, keep writing.

on Feb. 24 2011 at 6:22 pm
SeerKnowsBest SILVER, Pryor, Oklahoma
5 articles 0 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
i have so many favourite quotes, but one that has stuck with me for years is " to die would be an awfully big adventure" -peter pan, Peter Pan, j. m. barrie

your username... haha i like it

on Feb. 10 2011 at 5:25 pm
Hawthorn BRONZE, Nowheresville, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 55 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Know Thy Enemy" Sun Tzu

Sometimes you do need to understand whats going on so you know when to conveniently remember somewhere you need to be (Leave before a teacher hears and gets mad)

Lilliterra said...
on Feb. 2 2011 at 1:41 am
(I'm homeschooled, partly anyway)

Lilliterra said...
on Feb. 2 2011 at 1:41 am
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I rarely understand it but when I do I still don't get why they feel the need to make connections between completely unrelated things. I try to stay away from those people. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't survive High School.