As a Sophomore at American University in Washington, D.C., he’s already on his way to career in politics. Talk to Will and he’ll answer in sound bites, firing back politically perfect one-liners on any subject.

Sex: “Without love, not worth it.”

Drugs: “Never really tried them. Never wanted to.”

Suicide: “It’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

Body Piercings: “I have enough holes in my body already.”

When Will goes home on school breaks, he argues politics with his father. What political arguments would you like to make? The best way to make sure your voice is heard by registering to vote! Research the candidates and the issues so you can make an informed decision this November. Check out Rock the Vote for more information about how to get involved and for voter registration forms.

Flip through the photo book “One Hundred Young Americans,” and you see a collection of pretty young things prepping for fame, not life, such as Jake, who says, “The whole MySpace thing is a good warm-up for when I’m really famous.”

The article is accompanied by a full page photo collage of Megan (from Delaware), Blessing, Nate, Bethany, Titus, Ben, Delino, Megan (from Texas) and Mary.

Jennie seems to argue that this generation is the “Documentation Generation,” ready to live there lives in front of the camera- but is she right to make that claim?

You probably haven’t heard of Titus’s hometown unless you’re a golf fanatic and know about its Resort Golf Course’s 14^th hole—the world’s only movable floating green—or unless you’ve made a fast break from Boise to Canada. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho has about 50,000 residents, 1,521 of which attend Titus’s high school.

Dynamics at the school could not be more stereotypical. Jocks call the Goths and punks freak shows. Band geeks stick to themselves and play their instruments. Members of the football team move as a pack. Wrestlers do their own thing. Preppy girls go for 27-year-old dudes, and the jocks that desire preppy chicks get frustrated and date underclassmen. Everyone inevitably falls into stereotype. But despite their typical school trappings, many students have goals for the future that are anything but traditional. Titus, for example, wants to be a smoke jumper who jumps out of planes to fight wildfires.

“I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Titus said. Since seventh grade, wrestling has been his extreme and source of adrenaline. But as his wrestling career nears its end, he’s looking for another rush. “I want to try to do some smoke jumping,” Titus said. If the idea of smoke junking seems extreme to you, it’s probably because it is. “You’re at the station, and you throw on your parachute gear and your backpack full of stuff. You jump near or on top of the fire, and you parachute down to the fire and control it.” Years of intense physical conditioning during wrestling season will be valuable in his desired profession.

The minimum smokejumper physical standards of the U.S. Forest Service are:

1. 7 pull-ups or 7 chin-ups.

2. 45 sit-ups

3. 25 push-ups

4. 1 l/2 run in 11 minutes or less.

5. Pack out –110 pound pack for 3 miles in 90 minutes or less.

6. Standard firefighting pack test for U.S. Forest Service.

For someone with Titus’s attitude that “anything that involves me getting hurt is an adrenaline rush,” smokejumping is a natural next step from high school. But what is the likelihood that he will get hurt? Despite the seeming inherent risks associated with parachuting into an inferno, smokejumping is statistically no more dangerous than ground fire fighting.

But the demands are different. Smokejumpers work in much smaller groups than traditional crews of firefighters. They jump often in more remote areas, working to stamp out small wildfires before they spread to more populated areas. Because smokejumpers are often needed in heavily forested, unpopulated areas, countries and states with few people often rely on them, some of the most extreme uninhabited areas of the world rely on them. Russia maintains one of the largest fleets in the world, with thousands on call. Canada, Mongolia, and the Northwest U.S. are home to the rest of the world’s known fleets.

For a teen in Idaho, smokejumping is not a remote possibility. Boise, Idaho City, McCall and Grangeville all have operating bases. And for Titus practical considerations like working season come into play. “It’d be cool…I’d do smoke jumping for a while, and in the winter there are no fires. So you just take it easy and get a different job,” he said. While some people teach so they can have the summers off, others like Titus parachute to fight fires so they can have the winters off. So what does make a wrestler jump out of airplane? Well, adrenaline, yeah, but free time to make snowmen might have something to do with it—proving that even though jocks fit stereotypes in many ways, in a lot of aspects they just don’t.

DISCUSSION:

What do you do for an adrenaline rush?

ON SOCIAL SITUATIONS: “I just like making things awkward for people. I’ll just mess with people.”

ON HIS BODY: “Every once in a while I just, like, give a good flex in the mirror, but I don’t look that good because I’m all pale and pasty.”

ON SCHOOL: “The teachers are trying to prepare us for college, and I just don’t care.”

ON MARRIAGE: “I’ll fight it as long as possible.”

HIS LISTED OCCUPATION ON MYSPACE: Underwater Welding

WHAT HE SAYS OTHERS SAY ABOUT HIM: “Don’t mess with him. He’s a wrestler.”

Brooks’ hometown is known as the “Horse Capital of the World” and is heralded on wikipedia (without citation) as home to the largest peanut butter factory in the world. But neither of these things matter much to Brooks. His life revolves around the city’s public skate park, located right across the street from where he lives now. And that he lives there is no coincidence. “I wanted to be freer. Now I can do whatever I want. Skate whenever I want. Make as much noise in my apartment as I want,” he said.

Skate parks have been around since the ‘70s, but only over the past fifteen years have they gained legitimacy as needed public spaces. A number of things caused the change. The private skate parks built in the ‘70s closed down, as liability for injuries at the park became too great and land values increased to make selling out more appealing. Despite the closing of private skate parks, the popularity of skateboarding has swelled. Instead of going to designated parks, skaters turned to any available rails, ramps, empty pools, and ledges—but not without controversy. Residents complained about destruction to public and private property. Providing skaters with a designated place to skate became increasingly appealing to city governments. Meanwhile, states across the country began passing laws defining skating as a “Hazardous Recreational Activity,” thus minimizing municipal liability for injuries incurred at the park.

Skate parks have become so popular as to become requisite for any 21^st century city. Adjacent to a suburban strip mall or under a behemoth urban bridge, the skate park provides modern teens with not only a place to skate, but also a sense of community. Recognizing a need to organize a group of skaters who largely prefer autonomy to involvement in city government, websites and nonprofit organizations have formed to give skaters a voice in city politics and to advocate for smart skate park development practices.

Skaters for Public Skateparks (SPS), http://www.skatersforpublicskateparks.org, is one such organization. “If your city doesn’t have a skatepark, then your city is a skatepark,” their homepage reads. The site is well crafted, and a visual highlights the five steps in the skatepark process: “1. Vision, 2. Advocacy, 3. Fundraising, 4. Design, and 5. Maintenance.” Groups such as SPS provide skaters with a forum for issues within the community and unified voice when dealing with city officials.

Straightfromthehip.net tailors more to city officials than SAS does and includes a number of comprehensive case studies on parks across the country.

Brooks has a love-hate relationship with his hometown. The city’s skate park provides most of the love. “If I didn’t have a hobby, I’d be sitting around think I hate life,” he said. Conservative estimate put the number of skaters in the country at 11 million. If a skate park in every community makes them (and even skating opponents) happy, build them.

As long as cities create parks, they will create rules. The following are the rules posted at Brooks’ skate park:

1. Know your abilities and skate at your own risk.
2. Children, 17 and under, should have parental supervision.
3. This is a skate park only, not a bike park.
4. Skating permitted during park hours only.
5. Users are encouraged to wear helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads.
6. Horseplay, shoving, and/or fighting will not be tolerated.
7. Glass containers not allowed within the fenced skating area.
8. No other items such as benches, tables, or other objects may be used as ramps or jumps in this facility.
9. No skating against traffic on ramps/pipes.
10. Do not proceed down a ramp until clear of other skaters.
11. Certain weather conditions such as snow, ice, or wet surfaces can affect ramps and surface conditions.
12. Please do not overcrowd facility.
13. Smoking, eating and drinking allowed outside of facility only.
14. No spectators inside skating area.

ON BIG CITIES: “I don’t understand how LA is so big. I can walk across downtown [in his hometown] and be anywhere I want to be in less than an hour.”

ON HIS PARENTS’ DIVORCE: “I didn’t think it was possible. Like the world trade center, you didn’t think it was possible.”

ON PERCEPTIONS OF SKATERS: “We’re not like shat upon. People don’t hate skateboarding or think we’re the scum of the earth.”

ON DATING: “That’s what it’s about, being able to talk to someone.”

ON MUSIC: “Music – I buy it in the store. I’m all for having a CD collection. I love being able to throw in a CD.”

ON FRIENDSHIP: “I have a lot friends but only a few real close ones.”

ON CIGARETTES: “What I like about smoking? It’s something to do, it passes the time. That’s it.”

ON JACKASS: “It’s alright. Some of it’s kind of cooky. I mean, why would you let a snake bite your dick?”

ON ALCOHOL: “You couldn’t be a totally happy person if you were lying around drunk every day. You gotta know when the right time for drinking is.”

It’s not surprising that a 16 year old boy like Nate loves music. What is surprising is that most of his favorite bands were at the peak of their careers nearly a decade before he was born. These bands, including Minor Threat, Agnostic Threat, Million Dead Cops, the Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains, marked the rise of hardcore punk scene, and the beginning of the mosh pit as we know it.

The term “mosh” is itself the result of misunderstanding, which given that it describes an important aspect of a misunderstood counterculture of hardcore punk is possibly one of the reasons the coined term stuck. According to punk lore, “mosh” was how a bunch of Americans interpreted the Jamaican-accented Bad Brains’s saying of the word “mash.” And thanks to this mistake, a movement was born.

Just as with many counterculture phenomenon, moshing started out with a small following, grew, and splintered. And, though, over time the face of mosh pits has changed, the reason for their existence has not.

“In their natural state, humans are brutal and violent,” Nate says. When you see things from his perspective, thrashing around in a pit is not senseless, but poetic social commentary. In a sense, the violent chaos in front of a stage frees his friends and him from the everyday hypocrisy they see around them. Teens like Nate embrace moshing as a way to act in a way that coincides with the true nature of the human race.

“When people tell me about peace, I’m like, ‘no, peace won’t work.’ There’s going to be constant conflict and war,” Nate said.

Though the chaos in the midst of a mosh pit reflects the way Nate and many others like him see the world around him, there is a price for this expression. Many people have died while moshing.

At a 1997 Smashing Pumpkins show in Dublin, a girl was crushed by the crowd and died of the injuries at the hospital. Even after Billy Corgan, lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, publicly denounced moshing “young, college lughead-types,” another fan died at the band’s Richmond, British Colombia, Canada show on September 24, 2007. Jessica Michalik was killed during the 2001 Australia Big Day Out festival when she was reportedly crushed by a crowd and asphyxiated.

Despite the risks, moshing continues, but not without controversy among and between bands, venues, parents, and fans. Some bands attempt to stop rowdy crowds and others provoke them. Some people go to shows looking to incite the pit and others just end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though European-style concert regulation doesn’t seem likely in the US in the immediate future, controversy might soon require concessions on all sides.

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY?

What’s your craziest thing that’s happened to you in a mosh pit? What do you think about bands that ban mosh pits?

THE BASICS

• Originated in L.A. hardcore music scene during the early ‘80s

• Crowd surfing is illegal at most festivals and concerts in Europe

PLAY OR GET OUT OF THE WAY

• Huntington Beach Strut- Swing your arms around and hit anything and everyone in your way. You’re on your way to becoming a Mike Marine of the O.C. who apparently made enough people bleed to get this type of slamdancing named after him.

What you should do: Curl up in a ball or run in a zig zag—either will minimize risk of serious injury.

Allow me to paint you a picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiv95j-tEIM

• Wall of Death (the Braveheart)- Essentially a modern-day revolutionary war bum rush sans bayonets. Two groups divide into two lines with a large gap between them, and then run towards each other.

What you could do: Pick a side and match yourself with someone across from you that is much smaller—basically the same way you would aim for the weakest link in a red rover chain.

What you should do: Craft an excuse to check out the balcony.

If it’s that terrifying on YouTube, imagine being in the middle of the action: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9175303374032281392

Skanking

• With roots in Jamaican dance halls, skanking made its way into mosh pits via the British mods and skinheads, and hardcore punk rockers made it their own by adding a more aggressive flailing of clenched fists.

What you should do: Don’t choke on your own blood, son.

Learn how to skank: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1303768620034082641&q=skanking&total=5057&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Crowd Surfing

• People put their hands up and pass others around over their heads. The perils of crowd surfing vary—from getting kicked in the eye to being dropped on your head. In the wake of the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, crowd surfing is now illegal at most shows in Europe.

What you should do: Hands up. Don’t squeeze anything too long.

For the visually inclined: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7397362064062795807&q=crowd+surfing&total=1842&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9

How he describes himself on myspace: im nate i go by many many nick names that no one seems to use such as -dunde -tic -nate-a-late -fork <–(this one is questionable) -and so much more i enjoy music and reading horror novels. also video games and riding my bike long distances. drinking with my friends is always great and going to shows

On love: “Had a girlfriend a couple of months ago. Together a month. She was insane. Clingy. Really nice girl. Pretty cool. It’s just that everyone wants to fall in love too soon. Trenton introduced me to her. He introduces me to all the chicks I regret.”

On technology: “I don’t have a cell phone. A cell phone just looks like another reason to suck down money—the randomist stupidest bullshit to suck your money.”

On politics: “Politics. I hate ‘em.”

On music: “I mostly listen to Oi! Punk. I listen to hardcore shit – we don’t growl, we say what we think. And we don’t think about how we’re sad.”

How Fortlupton.org describes Nate’s hometown of 6,787: “Fort Lupton offers small town quality of life with an easy drive to numerous big city conveniences.”