I'll take fun over cool in a heartbeat.

I have had the pleasure of photographing the Jr. High stage productions, the last being "Bye Bye Birdie". The actual play aside, I was struck by how much fun these kids were having. Especially when compared to the adult siblings and parents that came up after the performance. A few of them looked cool, good-looking, fashionable, disengaged.
Boring.
After spending an hour or two in the camaraderie of backstage, the fun was palpable. To feel of their joie de vivre was, well, fun, and anything but cool.

As a teen I longed to be cool.

What a waste.
I'll take fun over cool in a heartbeat.

After the Saturday show they had a sock-hop at the school for the cast. It wasn't cool, it wasn't awesome. It was fun. Pictured here.

Family Home Evening

scene opens:
Small girl flailing in bedroom screaming something incoherently about "treats"
cut to scene:
Celling - hear the now muffled screaming from above.
pan down:
Tween girl hugging her knees to her chest, face wet with tears and red with emotion, deep sobs still racking her as she rocks back and forth.
pan across
Two girls, another tween and a teen their bodies are racked also - with near hysterical laughter, one is focused on the sobbing girl the other looking off camera...
pan across:
A mother sitting on a couch, there is a book in her lap (scriptures) tears are also streaming down her face - she could be laughing or crying - hard to tell.
pull back
A living room, the four emotion filled occupants are grouped in a semi circle around a man standing, he is looking around slowly at the emotional carnage.
zoom in:
His face, tired, and bemused he draws a long breath to speak, "um, I guess I'll say the closing prayer..."
cut to black