Avril Lavigne once said in 2002, “He was a Sk8ter Boy”, and for the middle school boys of 2009-2011, there was never a truer statement.

Back in 2009, a simpler time when Obama had just stepped into office and Justin Bieber was at the peak of his career, 13 year old boys were spontaneously flipping their hair and breaking their ankles doing 360s on the steps in front of the school. These boys seemed to be the object of every girl’s affection and when reminded that they shared the same haircut as Justin Bieber, they were quick to remind you that they “had it before he was famous.”

This skater boy phenomenon was unlike anything I’ll ever see in my life again, it was so crucial to that time period but like all trends, this one had to come to an end. By 2012 there wasn’t a shaggy haired, skateboarder left in town. They’d moved on and to what? Cars and Prison.

With the loss of their hobby and hair, the once skater boys were also at a loss with their identity. They were one with the sport of skating and had become accustomed to the way girls would run their hands through their hair and shake it. It made them feel desirable. So it must’ve been a hard pill to swallow when they awoke one morning knowing their once irresistible haircut was now borderline revolting, and that they weren’t the next Tony Hawk, just another tween whose bones never quite healed from all the kickflips they didn’t land. In attempt to feel whole again, they transformed their passion for skating into a love for cars. It’s that simple. They found themselves in shining tires and polishing their hoods. But for the ones who didn’t discover this love for cars, prison it was.

Without any knowledge of who you are, it isn’t hard to become a crazed drug addict/alcoholic. And once you’ve reached this point, it surely is not a far cry from criminality. Only time can tell how long it’ll be before the former skater boy drunk drives himself straight into a parked car. When the police show up to the scene, I doubt they’ll let him off with a warning.

I’ll admit there were a few skater boys who evaded this tragic fate. Kudos to them! I wish you the best with your life. But just know, if you’re off at college somewhere dedicating all your time to Sigma Beta and doing keg stands with the bois, well then maybe that’s your very own form of car loving and law breaking. You have to find yourself somewhere, so congrats, you found yourself in the middle of your local Vineyard Vines spending $50 on boat shoes! Hurray!

Some boys were lucky. They’d grasped their identity from the get-go and they’ll never have to second-guess themselves. For example, the Italian boys who will crucify you for mispronouncing Ricotta cheese–It’s pronounced rigawta!–will always be the italian boys who pride themselves in their tan skin and big families. But for the ones who have fallen victim to trends, they might always be caught up in the revolving wheel of what’s in and what’s out.

So here we are in 2018 and these poor young men, still clueless as to how to find that level of security they had back in 2009. I hope that one day they find it and that this time it does not fail them the way it did at 13.