When you are a teenager, say from ages 14-18, and you live under your parent's charge, you never think about the cost of things. Take, for example, weekly grocery shopping. Your parents have two, sometimes all three, of their growing boys in the house. And one of those kids claims to be a competitive bodybuilder. That boy, who must eat six-eight times a day, is known to eat the following: a half dozen eggs, oatmeal, two whole roasted chickens, a loaf of bread, a pound of potato salad, chicken breasts, peanut butter, gallons of milk, fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice (brown and white). The weekly bill can total well over $350--in 1986. And the parents never complain; at least not to the children.
There are other costs of living the teenager never thinks about, ever. New school clothes--every year; school supplies; car insurance; gas; the mortgage; toiletries; entertainment (god forbid); utilities. It all adds up, but the teenager takes it for granted. He expects it to occur because that's what his parents are supposed to do (in his mind). He's a good kid, for the most part. He gets good grades, studies hard, stays out of trouble, occasionally goes out with friends and doesn't drink or do hallucinogenic drugs, dates once in a while but never goes to dances, thinks about his future and going to college. He's not perfect, no matter what appearances he tries to keep up. He's got a secret, and he does a good job at hiding it for years.
All of the money spent on illegal steroids, all of the drug paraphernalia he keeps hidden in his trumpet case, all of the lies, the stealing, and the deception. He excuses himself in the name of a passion.
He's self centered and doesn't realize it until years later. When he's sorry for what he did. When he's several surgeries into it. When he continues to feel the chronic pain, over 20 years later. When he sees what a waste it all was. When he becomes a father and must protect, care for, and nurture his own. Because that's what parents do. It's what they do.
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