Pardon My Thoughts

I'm never afraid of saying what I think but I always worry whether people think I'm opinionated and if I am, whether that makes me not a nice person. Is being opinionated wrong? Is being opinionated just having, well, an opinion on something or does it mean something more? Is expressing what I think wrong or do I just need to reevaluate how I convey it to people?

What I worry about is whether I'm too aggressive when an un-witty comment is made about a subject I feel passionate about. This happens more often than it should as many of my fellow pupils seem to find it amusing when they wind me up. I should know that they say what they do to make a joke or to get me to react and to just ignore them, but I can't. I want them to know that their so called jokes they make aren't particularly funny and are without an ounce of wit about them but it seems to make them laugh all the same. My friends all feel the same way about topics such as feminism as I do but manage to know when to save their rants for someone who will actually listen. But that's the thing that gets me, that they don't listen and they don't care.

My generation are so boring compared to the past few decades of young people. We all dress conventionally, we all listen to the same processed crap and call it music, we all just live our lives and put up with the problems the world presents to us. Yes, we had the riots recently about education fees but it only lasted a couple of months and then we all went back to just accepting the ridiculous cost of university. In the sixties we had hippies who totally revolutionised the way the world saw things, why don't we have them anymore! There's nothing like a few radical protestors in long skirts who are completely off their face with drugs!
 In the eighties it was all about power with shoulder pads and cone bras and humungous hair and Band Aid. But now, we just have Justin Bieber and jeggings.

Maybe I should be proud that I care enough about things to want to make a difference and don't care what people think. I should be proud that I'm one of the very few people who are prepared to shout out at the world and demand equal rights for all and world peace, because although our predecessors did a great job in getting us to where we are we're still not quite there yet, not quite free. Let's not just give up because we have a lot of equal rights, let's push it until every man and woman with every sexuality, skin tone, financial position and religion has every right equal to everyone else.

Be opinionated if that's what it takes and never bat an eyelid at someone who tells you otherwise.