At first I smiled in amusement at the teenager on the station platform this morning on her way to work. Plugged into her ipod, and oblivious to the other commuters, she wailed away along to the music.
She was pretty bad too. I was being kind when I called it wailing. So I plugged myself in and drowned her out. It did me a favour really as 'my' part of the platform remained people-free so it meant less people could get on at 'my door' when the train arrived. My amusement turned to slight annoyance when The Wailer continued her vocal workout on a fairly busy train whilst standing about 4 inches from me. Turning up the volume and pushing the headphones further into my ears I tried to block her out whilst watching the bemused faces of the my fellow passengers.
I tried to work out her motivation for this. We've all heard of people being 'discovered' busking or singing to themselves but please believe me when i say that this girl had no hope of being signed by Simon Cowell (and he liked Susan Boyle and Paul Potts...) It took all the self-control I could muster to stop myself enquiring if she was in pain and required medical attention.
So, did she think she was fantastic and a little bit of an exhibitionist? Is she a teensy bit mental? Or is she simply the sort of person who (deep down) we'd all quite like to be: the person who just doesn't care what anyone else thinks and is happy in her own skin. It made me feel a little bit bad at judging her as a loon. Looking at her again, she actually looked no different to most of the people I knew at youth orchestra - not conventionally trendy, almost a tiny bit geeky and somewhat 'creative' . You know what I mean - back in the 80's it involved DMs, neck scarves, long skirts and huge jumpers - this girl was just the 'noughties' version.
So now I feel a bit like a bitch and also a bit old. As a teenager I never wanted to be one of those girls who conformed and who wore exactly what all the other cool and popular girls at her school did. No pringle jumpers and 'casual' skirts for me, no dodgy clubbing and listening to Radio 1. I was there going off on music courses and listening to Indie bands, dying my hair bright red and wearing leggings with DM's. Wailing girl could be doing far worse things - she could be in a gang, she could be getting knocked-up by a total loser but she's not. She's just doing her thing and singing on a train. Good for you.
Alternatively, she could just be a nutter.
