Beyond Teen Spirit: Learning From Kurt Cobain's Mistakes
I was so performatively distraught that I decided to make an appointment with the school counselor. I signed myself up on the door to her office and was called in later that afternoon to talk about my troubles.
I told the counselor about my depression.
Not any real, family things, but the grief I was feeling about Cobain. She looked genuinely concerned. After furrowing her brow she suggested that if I were to follow Kurt's example too closely, I might end up making some of his mistakes. I left the office considering this. Perhaps modeling my life after a deceased heroin addict wasn't the best takeaway from his suicide.
I picked the book back up and looked a little closer at the things that made Cobain feel alive. His style of punk, as told by Azerrad, was "do-it-yourself, be-yourself, low-tech ethos." Punk and zines.
I went back to the idol-worship drawing board. I started attending shows by local punk bands. I found zines by girls who were writing about their darkest secrets — liberating themselves by transforming these shames into art. I then started writing myself. And I found readers who understood, forging a place for myself in punk culture.
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