The Cat, the Panther, and the Toxic Phone

I arrived a little bit late for our meeting, and I was like, sorry, because I was with my friends and I absolutely forgot the time. Fruitloop said it was okay because she used the time to give cooking instructions to her husband. So really, I was late, but also I helped the dinner situation, I think.

My day was really cool, but also so warm. In France it was too hot to stay in school, so we had our practice in a room in the village center because there was air conditioning. In the school we don’t have this, so it was really hard to work, to play, to do anything. Fruitloop told me that in her place it was cold because of the wind, even if the temperature was 22 degrees. I said if we had 22 degrees, we would be wearing the same clothes as we wore during this heatwave.

Then we spoke about my holidays. I have many meetings, please. Tomorrow I have school practice again, then a meeting at 7:30 p.m. for the church camp, and before that a call with friends because we have to make the menu for the two-week scout camp. The church camp is from the 5th to the 8th of July, and the scout camp is from the 18th of July to the 2nd of August. Fruitloop realised this was probably our last lesson before the holidays, and I was like, oh no, terrible, but also it is holidays, so okay.

Our topic was balance between work and play. I said it is when you know how to be serious with your work, your career, your school, but next to this you also have hobbies and fun. During school, my study meter is higher because my mom doesn’t allow me to go out with friends during the week. Only weekends. But during holidays, my fun meter is higher, obviously.

Fruitloop asked me about a cartoon or game I still secretly love, and I said Totally Spies. The old one, not really the new one. I loved the lipstick laser, the mirror with GPS, all the spy things. I told her it is on Netflix, and she said maybe her son would not watch it because he thinks everything like Barbie or My Little Pony is for girls. Okay, his loss.

Then Fruitloop gave me the quote, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” At first I didn’t understand. Who is Jack? Is he a cartoon character? But Fruitloop said Jack can be anyone. Then I understood that “dull” means boring. I said if you delete play from your life, you delete hobbies, social interaction, good moments, and sharing time with friends. That makes people boring and sad. Really sad.

We spoke about what would make a 16-year-old Jack dull today. I said not having friends. Maybe you can have hobbies alone, but if you don’t have social relationships, you don’t learn how to speak with people, how to react, how to adapt yourself. At my school there are different groups in the room in the center of the high school. The nerds, the others, us, all these groups. But I said we can’t really judge if people are boring because we don’t know them. Maybe we just don’t speak with them because we don’t have the same hobbies.

After that, Fruitloop taught me about doom scrolling. I know scrolling, but not doom scrolling. It is when you scroll forever, like on TikTok, and you cannot stop. I said TikTok feels like magic because sometimes I see the warning video with the dead thumb, and I think, okay, I have to stop, but I can’t. I said scrolling is not really a proper break because your mind doesn’t stop. It helps you think about other things, but it secretly drains you. Sport is much better for a mental break.

If my brain freezes after four hours of studying, my fastest reboot is food. Banana chips are very good. Fruitloop also loves dried bananas, so now we are together in the banana chips club. I also said Nutella gives me energy, but Fruitloop buys the cheaper version because Nutella is expensive and her son would eat the whole thing with a spoon. Honestly, same energy.

We also talked about staying up late with friends. I said when you are with friends, you don’t realise time passes. Like today, I forgot I had English and had to run home because my mother reminded me. I did my sport of the week, please. Sometimes when the alarm rings the next morning, I regret staying out late, but when I remember the memories and the good moments, I don’t really regret it anymore.

From scouts, I learned to adapt. When something happens and I wasn’t prepared, I can react in the moment. From school, I learned how to survive boring things by being boring too. Like, okay, I don’t want to be here, but I am here, so I have to do it. Very inspiring, I know.

I told Fruitloop I try to do all my homework on Friday, even if it takes two or three hours, because then I can enjoy my weekend without being scared like, “Oh no, I didn’t do this.” My Wednesday afternoon is also very important. It is my break. I can see friends, watch Netflix, eat snacks, do my everything shower, wash my hair, do scrub things, and just not think about school. If I didn’t have that, I think I would become crazy.

Next year my schedule will change because I chose specialities. I will have more science, maths, and physics, maybe double the hours. I don’t know if I will still have Wednesday afternoon free, which is absolutely sad. But I dropped subjects I disliked, like economic and social science and technology things, because they were so annoying.

Some school subjects can feel like play. Physics, for example. We had normal lessons with the textbook, but on Friday we had practical lessons for one hour and thirty minutes. We did experiments and calculations, like finding out how much we would weigh on the moon because of gravity. It was difficult, but I liked it because it made an annoying problem interesting.

Then we spoke about phones. I said my phone is a bad instrument, but also my best friend. It is a toxic relationship. I hate him, but he says, “Please love me, love me, love me all the time,” and then I love him. When I was at scout camp last summer for two weeks without my phone, it wasn’t difficult because I was with my friends. But sometimes, when I have no notification, I check every thirty seconds like, why is there nothing?

Fruitloop told me that when she was my age, phones were only for calls and SMS, with black and white screens, no camera, no real internet. Later she used something like WhatsApp, but people had to be online at the same time. That is so weird. I think modern phones are not always good, but also I don’t know how people survived before.

We talked about social media pressure, but I said I don’t feel pressure to be productive or start a business. I leave that for influencers. I use TikTok to send funny videos to my friends. I watch influencers sometimes, but I’m not a fan like I need to see them in real life. Fruitloop prefers animal rescue videos, which is more positive. I said social media is really fake now, and many people use AI. We also laughed about fake AI videos, like a lion attacking a car, where you can see it is not real. Some parents believe these videos, but I can smell it is fake. Please.

Then we did silly questions. If schoolwork was an animal, I said it would be a cat because it sleeps, but it is also agile. Free time would be a black panther. Then we realised a panther is also a kind of cat, but stronger, so my free time would probably eat my schoolwork. If they became best friends, it would be perfect because I would be balanced and relaxed.

If a balanced, stress-free day was a pizza topping, I said rocket. Also olives, mozzarella, pesto, tomatoes, and cheese. Basic pizza, but good pizza. Fruitloop said she should tell her pizza place, and I said she must send one to me by post, please.

For a useless but fun job that pays $100 an hour, I said professional fun activity tester. Last year in English, we learned about the best job in the world in Australia, where someone got paid a lot to test activities and places. Then we spoke about restaurant inspectors and secret shoppers, like supermarket FBI. Honestly, testing hotels sounds much better than checking if Nutella costs $12. Make it cheaper, please.

At the end, Fruitloop told me to enjoy my holidays, scout camp, and church camp. She said if I remember and have time, I can send pictures or videos. I said I hope I will remember, because honestly, it is me, so we never know.

So that was my meeting with Fruitloop before the holidays: too much heat, too many meetings coming up, one toxic phone, banana chips, physics on the moon, and a cat schoolwork being eaten by a black panther free time. I think that is balance. Or maybe chaos. But cool chaos.