the more things stay the same, the more we change...

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

Or should it be the more things stay the same, the more we change?

I was sitting on the train last night. [Before we go any further, this is the correct English. Far too often I hear “I was sat on the train”. That is incorrect. If you are DOING the action, then your verb must be active not passive!)
So,

I was sitting on the train last night. I was returning home from another day in London and the carriage then filled with school boys. “uh oh” I thought, here we go. Then I just watched and listened as I pretended to read my book – but not in a nasty way.

So NOTHING has changed in 25 odd years since I was their age. These guys were 12/13/14. They all looked the same as my class at school. There was the fat one, the ugly one, the sporty looking ones, the small scrawny looking on ee who probably had a pretty sister, there was the joker, the quiet one and so on... The lad opposite me was reading his exam notes (1950s communism, nitrogen cycle, French verbs and what looked like a bit of classics. I figured a posh school). The lad to my right was on his phone and the one to the right of the one opposite was playing a ps2 and talking apps, downloads and interrupting everyone with the gaol he’d just scored at the European cup.

Nothing has changed has it.

My trips were full of the same thing, just different content and expressed differently. We had magazines (Viz), the Ps2 was a rubbish Donkey Kong that was made of red plastic and had the screen printed in ink as the graphics were like a modern day digital watch, football, science lessons, balls sports, teachers we hated, bikes we’d ridden, homeworks we’d forgotten, tapes we were listening too and which member of the A-team was best were the subjects.

I suppose a steam train in the 1930’s wouldn’t look that different, straw hated boys talking latin and cricket... and maybe 50 years from now I hope the school is going and some hologram t-shirt will replace the totally impractical blazers our kids are forced to wear.

For years people say ‘the youth of today’ and ‘it wasn’t like that for us back in the day’.. but it was. And it is. We’ve changed. That’s all.
I’ve changed.
I don’t get the music as easily.
I can’t as easily intuitively pick up the Ps2.
I know nothing about the euros.
I still don’t see why we need to learn the nitrogen cycle either.

BUT I am happy that we send boys to school so they can go on trips and interact with each other on day like yesterday; It was there and in those situations I found I could understand everything.

Last night, I was just a commuter on a train and the world seemed pretty difficult if I let it...