Stupid Perfect World

This novella, by Scott Westerfeld, paints a picture of the future, when sleep is unnecessary, no teenager experiences changes by hormones anymore, and you could teleport from your home to Mars in less than three minutes. It depicts the lives of Kieran Black and Maria, sixteen-year-olds in this safe world, when as a class project they have to experience a disease or frailty that was experienced by people in the olden days - namely, us. These frailties include the common cold, athelete's foot, bubonic plague, not eating, and others. Kieran Black chooses sleep, and Maria - hormones, a.k.a. Teen Angst.

These two accounts made me think about our world. First, teenage drama. Being a tween-on-the-brink-of-teen, I've read several books on the matter, the Princess Diaries, for example. They speak of drama, emotions, misery, and the temporary insanity teenagers experience when meeting a cute boy or girl (whatever "cute" means). I laugh and think, "What nonsense! I daresay I shall never be so dramatic about these things." But will I eat my words in a few years? As time draws me inevitable nearer to the day I leave my tweens behind me forever, I wonder if I'll experience those changes. Sometimes I shake my head and think to myself, "The day that the teenage stuff happens to me, both physical and emotional, will be a day of mourning." But maybe that's the Cancer/Luna inside me, being dramatic. Who knows? Maria, being affected by hormones, starts writing poetry and longing to be outside in the rain. I'm familiar with the latter.

I've often wondered about how one might know when sleep is coming on - the first stage of sleep. Thoughts progress in my head, and I can't ever remember the exact moment when I start to drift, with no thoughts at all. It's fascinating, when I think about it.
Sleep is nothingness.
Sleep is timeless.
Sleep is oblivion.

Then, I experience the magic of dreams: fantasies, the train of thought I never had during the day, the wild scenarios I picture to try to let myself begin to float in unconsciousness. Anything can happen. Wonderful dreams of flying, or just scenarios that take place at school, or in random places I'd never imagined before - with my friends, family, people I'd almost forgotten about.

Not to mention nightmares! The funny thing is, I haven't experienced fear for a long time. Of course, I don't mean the fear like fear that I might not get a good grade, or fear that Angel is unresponsive because she wants to be. Of course, the latter might progress into a real fear that - but no, I won't say. The former is becoming more intense as the end of the school year draws near and with it, the noose.

The fear I'm talking about is the fear for my life, fear of getting hurt, fear of a menacing thing. The kind of fear you feel when you have a nightmare of being chased. When I started musing over it, I thought about how fear was a thrilling thing, that caused adrenaline to pound in your veins and to put your sense of self-preservation into overdrive. And I realized that I looked forward to feeling fear!

I don't know when I had that realization, but I do know that since then, I hadn't had a single nightmare.