Seventeen
Linda Schneider
ENG 101
Baker College Auburn Hills

“Seventeen” by Kristy Swartout
“You’re seventeen and you think you’re special”.
When you think of being Seventeen you think about how you’re on the cusp of being an adult. “The age between getting your driver’s license and being able to buy cigarettes” But at the same time life can still be very mystifying, without a doubt you’ll have questions about who you are and what the meaning of life is.
“Seventeen” by Kristy Swartout is a poem about what a confusing time it can be when you’re seventeen. In the following I will specifically discuss the influence of peer pressure and questions that religion can bring to a young person as well as my response to the poem.
“Image is important” says Swartout as it is with most teenagers, she wants to “fit in” so she begins to experiment with smoking along with her friends, but she’s not sure that she even likes smoking. She thinks in order to fit in with her peer group she must be like them or resemble them enough to be accepted.
She talks about going to church and listening to the priest talk about someone named Jesus and God; she wonders “why are there starving children in Africa” if there is a God. She imagines if there is a God would He or She care what she wore to church? Her mother reminds her that church is not a fashion show, but then why does she spend twenty hours in her bedroom closet contemplating on what to wear to church?
Swartout writes about her science class and how you would never raise your hand because “Mrs. Murphy would realize you had potential”. She might ask that you to clean the chalkboard for her after class and from there you would be the teacher’s pet. Because Swartout needs to pass her science class; she stays and helps, she notices a photo of Mrs. Murphy and who she assumes is her husband. She ponders “Teachers aren’t real people”. She thought “Maybe Mrs. Murphy was seventeen once too”. She wonders if Mrs. Murphy believes in God and goes to church, and speculates if she has children of her own.
In closing “Seventeen” reminds us that we all have had questions concerning our image, our friends and family and even our teachers. The doubts we’ve had about religion and why do bad things happen if there is a God?
I personally can relate to this poem quite a bit, I have shared many of Swartout’s anxieties and doubts on several subjects she spoke of in her poem. Although I was younger than seventeen when I tried smoking it was under the same premise or peer pressure that in order to be part of the “in crowd” you need to smoke. A few of us went in on a pack of cigarettes, after that pack was finished I decided I didn’t like smoking, and I’m a non-smoker to this day. To me image was not everything.
As far as religion goes, I grew up in a household of mixed feelings on that subject. My mother was from the south; her upbringing was one of strong faith and deep commitment to teaching religion to her children.
But my father was an atheist; I didn’t have to go to church unless I wanted to, I had a lot of anxieties in crowds so I normally chose not to go to church. My father taught me to question things, not just about religion but of all things that just didn’t seem right in one way or another.
Kristy Swartout’s poem reminded me that being seventeen was not an easy age. An age I’m glad I don’t have to do over. I never felt there was anything special about being seventeen; for me personally it was a difficult age. I pressed the issue that I was an adult on far too many occasions and all the while I still acting like a child most of the time.
I was thankful to have older brothers and sisters who reminded me that I wasn’t alone in my frame of mind; they had also experienced the same emotional state, being seventeen and that I wasn’t any different than anyone else.