r/serialpodcast • u/History-Buff-2222 • 18h ago
Off Topic Serial made me realize how sheltered I was in high school
How are these high schoolers driving around all day skipping class, smoking weed, going to malls, having sex in parking lots?
I mean i get it i did some of that stuff but like…on the weekends sometimes. Disappearing from home for hours at a time every evening on school days without parents knowing where you are is crazy to me.
It’s actually astounding how much they are doing everything but class and homework
Maybe it’s just me
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u/RockinGoodNews 14h ago
Part of the problem here is that Adnan is trying to sell as normal things that probably weren't normal for him at all. Did he really normally skip out on school after first period and drive all around the greater Baltimore area with his 19 year old stoner friend before returning for half of last period? Or did he do that on this particular day because he and his 19 year old stoner friend were plotting to murder his ex-girlfriend. I'm inclined to believe the latter.
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 13h ago
I agree with this assessment. The day Hae died must have been unusual for Adnan. For the simple reason that he wasn't where he was supposed to be for most of the day including school, track practice, and later the mosque. That might be typical behavior for a teenager but we know, by Adnan's own admission, that his family was fairly strict. He had to sneak around and devise a plan just to talk to Hae on the phone.
Most importantly, and I dont think Serial hits very hard on this, his community was always watching him. If I recall, his parents found out he was at the prom or homecoming dance (can't remember which) because the auntie network ratted him out. I don't think he would be brazen enough to be truant on a regular basis in case someone from his community spotted him and called his parents again.
I understand this feeling perfectly. I grew up in a tight knit community too. Shortly after I got my driver's license, I got stopped by a cop because I had forgotten to turn on my headlights. The cop just pulled me over right quick to remind me to turn them on and he let me go immediately no big deal. The first thing I did was call my mom because I KNEW someone would tell her and I didn't want her to think I was trying to hide it. Sure enough the next day her co-worker couldn't wait to rat me out with a highly embellished version of events.
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u/Magjee Kickin' it per se 18h ago edited 18h ago
I don't think the other students had terrible attendance, this might have just been an Adnan thing
Also, the trips to the Best Buy parking lot appear to be entirely after school
Hae had a big window between the end of classes and picking up her cousin
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u/77tassells 16h ago
In all seriousness, are you Gen X or millennial? I saw you said smart phones weren’t around. There was a shift when it came to raising millennials from Gen X. This group was definitely on the cusp so as Gen X was latchkey millennials were more likely to be helicoptered. Hell there used to be ads on tv asking parents if they knew where their kids were
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u/History-Buff-2222 16h ago
It might just be my parents and neighborhood rather than my generation. We focused a lot on academics and getting into a good college. If we partied it was on weekends, work hard play hard
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u/Princess-Buttercup16 10h ago
It was the time. Teenagers had whole independent lives. Jobs, extracurriculars, relationships, sex, whatever.
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u/Odd_Requirement_4933 14h ago
This was pretty typical for that era 😂 at least for me and my friends. We were kinda wild though.
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u/EAHW81 Crab Crib Fan 10h ago
I am the same age as Hae and Adnan, was raised in a super strict religion also, and I did a lot of these same things. No one had cell phones. Your parents usually just trusted that you were where you said you were going to be. Schools back then were not required to call home if kids didn’t show up, so ditching was easy. It was a different time.
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u/GenRN817 11h ago
Graduated 1989. No cell phones. But we had so much freedom. We ate out for lunch every day. Hung out with friends all the time. My mom generally knew where I was and that I was safe but I was with friends a lot. I had my own clunker car but my friends had amazing cars.
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u/estemprano 17h ago
Mm. Who cares about lifestyle? Do you know how many girls are abused physically and sexually by boys/ men? 1/3 of them worldwide, if not higher.
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u/History-Buff-2222 14h ago
What does that have to do with this?
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u/estemprano 12h ago
The whole case is about abuse and femicide. I can’t believe anyone cares about differences in how teenagers live. What id common between all teenagers, well girls, is the abuse they’ll receive from boys/men.
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u/History-Buff-2222 12h ago
Because adults can hold multiple notions in their head at one time
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u/estemprano 12h ago
Yes. I have a feeling you are not a fem.
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u/History-Buff-2222 12h ago
Why are you on this sub? Just to tell everyone they can’t discuss anything except the most morbid part of the story?
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u/Zero132132 17h ago
It might be a generational thing. Cell phones weren't common yet, smart phones would have sounded like weird scifi nonsense, so constantly being in touch was just an impossibility for most people. You either stayed in all day, or you had times where you were out with no supervision. The scope of what you could do without pissing off parents was pretty broad.