No. 32: Interview with a Teenage Boy

Let’s Get Into It…

Most of my adult life has been spent inside the teenage mind. As a tutor, I worked with over 500 adolescents, so many who’ve grown up to become world-class adults. As a YA author, I’ve finished nine books about teenagers, along with hundreds of school visits and multiple book tours around the world, where I’ve met the most impressive, inspiring kids.

There’s so many reasons I’ve dedicated my life to working with teenagers, worth a diary in itself — but the most selfish reason is that it keeps me young. So many adults I know gripe about the new generation as ill-equipped and soft and phone-numbed and hold fast to the fallacy that they were made better before.

It is not true.

And forget the laziness of such nostalgia. It’s also the wrong way to live. If you think the old times and old people were better, then you’ve made yourself vintage and you’re eternally, as the French say, de passe.

This Next Gen will save us. I’m quite sure of it.

Which is why I’ve given my life to encouraging them.

So this week, I thought I’d take you into the mind of a teenage boy. Specifically a boy who is a voracious reader, given that’s what this diary is about.

Think you’ll be quite surprised by what I found.

ME: Let’s start with your first name and age and don’t doxx yourself.

KAVEEN: My name is Kaveen [redacted] and I’m 16 years old.

ME: Okay, you just doxxed yourself. Swimming start.

KAVEEN: Oh god. Sorry, Uncle Soman.

ME: Let’s start broad. How are you feeling about the state of the world? Big question. Answer it however you’d like.

KAVEEN: State of the world… Hmm. I’m just living in it. And having a good time. And because of that, I’d say the world is going well.

ME: That sounds hopeful and optimistic. Not words adults usually associate with teenagers today.

KAVEEN: I’m hopeful… but not optimistic. They’re not the same thing. I have hope things in this world will get better, but I’m not entirely sure they will be.

ME: What’s it like being a teenager in 2024?

KAVEEN: The internet makes things pretty great. Communication. Information. It makes school easier. Makes talking to my friends easier.

ME: What’s the downside to the internet?

KAVEEN: There isn’t one.

ME: Really?

KAVEEN: For other people, I think? But not for me.

ME: So what would you identify as your points of stress? Teenage boy…. 16 years old… What’s the thorn in your side?

KAVEEN: School work… and people. I mean, I understand why I have to do schoolwork and take tests and go to class, but it’s hard to like any of it. And when it comes to people — I like my friends and I like talking to people but it is hard sometimes.

ME: Why?

KAVEEN: I get anxious talking to people I don’t know. And I know it’s easy to say it’s because we’re used to texting and online interaction, but I honestly get anxious texting people I don’t really know too. Maybe it’s that I care a lot about what people think of me and how they view me, so even just sending texts… I’m very cautious about how it can be portrayed. Because it’s a lot easier to misinterpret a text than a spoken sentence.

ME: Do you think maybe being a reader has affected how deeply you think about these interactions? You’re a huge reader.

KAVEEN: It’s given me a bigger vocabulary, for one. But I think reading puts yourself in other people’s shoes. And I think it’s probably made me a bit more creative and imaginative. But it also means I’m not sad spending time alone, because it gives me something to do.

ME: Who are your favorite authors?

KAVEEN: (smiling big) Oh this is a fun question. Brandon Sanderson, of course.

ME: I mean, I’ve gotten to see this up close the last couple years. You are the Ultimate Branderson Bro.

KAVEEN: I’ve almost read every single book he’s written in the Cosmere. I just have a couple books left.

ME: What’s the first thing you’d say to Brandon Sanderson if you met him?

KAVEEN: I love you. (pause) I mean your books.

ME: You are full-in on Branderson.

KAVEEN: I’ve backed his most recent Kickstarter for his RPG. I am full in.

ME: What about Brandon Sanderson makes him so special?

KAVEEN: He’s done what no fantasy epic has ever done before. He’s hidden and crafted a multi-world, multi-series universe so wonderfully. It’s insane. I started with one book, not realizing what I was getting into, and now…

ME: Is this the first thing you’ve ever read where you’re like… this is for me?

KAVEEN: Exactly. It combined two of the best things ever: fantasy and technology. He treats magic scientifically, which is just mind-boggling to read.

ME: What will you do when you finish the last two books?

KAVEEN: Cry. For a bit. And then I’d move on. I’m going to read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss next. And maybe I’ll read Game of Thrones after that. 

ME: What do you think of your friends at school who stopped reading —

KAVEEN: They didn’t stop. They just don’t read period. They read Magic Treehouse once upon a time and then that was it. They read just the books for school and even those they don’t really read all the time. There’s just very few kids in my school who read and especially even fewer boys, which is unfortunate.

ME: And what do they think about the fact you read?

KAVEEN: They make jokes. But I don’t think they really care. It’s my hobby. They just can’t really relate to it. It’s like being a musician when no one else is a musician around you. They can listen to music and know what it is, but they can’t really… you know.

ME: Do you think you’ll be a reader forever?

KAVEEN: For sure. I mean, as long as Brandon Sanderson keeps writing, then definitely. But I love, love, love fantasy so if that genre ever dies out, then maybe I’d stop. But I doubt it.

ME: Do you watch a lot of television?

KAVEEN: Not so much. Where reading I can go at my own pace, watching TV is harder because it’s paced for me.

ME: What an interesting way of putting it.

KAVEEN: I like TV shows in that they give me something to look at. When I’m reading, sometimes I have a hard time picturing the characters and places in my head. If you ask me what a place in a book looks like, I just have a hard time imagining it and have to use a real-world stand in. Which is why TV shows are nice — because they can portray what I can’t imagine. But at the same time, everything is so brutally slow.

ME: TV is slower than books, you’re saying.

KAVEEN: And movies. Because it’s hard for them to portray an inner dialogue and people’s thoughts. I love getting into people’s heads and trying to figure out what they’re thinking. In books and real life. But in TV and movies, it’s flat somehow. All dialogue is surface level. I’m listening to them talk but I’m not in their point of view.

ME: Have you ever seen an adaptation that you thought was good?

KAVEEN: [blank stare]

ME: Sanderson has none, I’m assuming.

KAVEEN: Every day, I open up my e-mail account, hoping they send me an e-mail asking me to give money to a Kickstarter for a TV series of his books. Hopefully before 2040.

ME: I know Sanderson has a Con every year dedicated just to his books. If I finagle an invite to be on a panel there and bring you… does that make me your favorite uncle?

KAVEEN: No, because I don’t pit uncles against each other, much as you would like me to. As I see it, there’s no competition.

ME: Of course there is.

KAVEEN: I’m not big into competitions generally. Most kids my age are. Especially boys.

ME: But every time I see you, you’re playing board games, video games… Are you not competitive in those?

KAVEEN: I don’t like being dragged into competitions with people. For me, it’s about the social connections. The learning about the game. I don’t care if I lose. It’s less about winning and losing and more about the feeling behind it. If there’s a sense that pride is going to be lost or feelings hurt on my end or their end, then I’d rather not play or participate at all. I just play for the vibe.

ME: Speaking of vibes — what do you look for in a story? What engages you?

KAVEEN: I like it when all these plot threads, like innocent bits of foreshadowing, all converge into an epic climax. I like big beats in a story where epic things happen, where you’re like “Oh crap, this is what it was all meant for.” Seriously, I’m fine reading 500 pages of exposition for 100 pages of amazing payoff.

ME: I wonder why that is. Which brings me to a question I used to ask every student I worked with on their college essays, back when I was a tutor. What is it that makes you tick? What makes time disappear for you?

KAVEEN: Laughing. If I’m extremely happy, time just flies by. My ideal in life is just to be constantly happy and to be surrounded by people I love and doing the things I like. But I guess that’s a world without challenge, so…

ME: But what is that challenge, then? That thing you’re good at and passionate about, but also is a mountain to climb? Maybe the thing you might even end up doing professionally…

KAVEEN: That’s a hard question. I don’t really know, because there’s not one thing I’m passionate about. Huh. I’ve thought about it a lot, but I can never really find an answer. I play guitar, but it’s not the thing. I read a lot, but it’s not the thing. I like video games, but it’s not the thing. There is no real thing that makes me tick. But I think what’s important to me is knowing that the things I’m doing, the things I’m spending time on are because of my own choice. I’d be happy doing anything as long as I’m the one that chose to do it and I enjoy doing it. I guess what makes me tick is happiness. And I work towards finding it, whatever that is in the future.

ME: Don’t think we could find a better way to end.

KAVEEN: Thanks, Uncle Soman.

Kaveen and his dad.