So, like a fool I’ve gone and gotten addicted to another MTV teeny-bopper show. How could this happen again you ask? I have no excuse – I could fault expert marketing, a longing for my stolen youth, the misplacement of my remote control – but really I have no one to blame but myself.

The offending show, The Paper, drew me in with it’s quirky  Editor in Chief, Amanda. Did I see a little of myself in her? Did she remind me of days gone by when things were simpler and I had all the answers? Not really, she talked to herself while she was “running” on the treadmill and plastered her walls with notes of positive thoughts. Indeed, the power-pink post-its actually read “POSITIVE THOUGHTS”. She had me at hello.

She’s got her own sense of style and apparently twelve different pairs of glasses (not sunglasses, actual improve-your-sight glasses). She’s her own person – crazy, whimsical, completely oblivious to those plotting against her. And there is plotting – lots of plotting.

I had no idea the high school newspaper scene was so vicious. Did you? Poor Amanda has it coming at her from every angle. I often find myself cursing the tv and the little demons that work so tirelessly to take her down. I won’t tell you their names, because I’m a grown-up and I don’t want to pick on teenagers. I’ll make fun of them in the privacy of my home and my blog, but I’m not going to pick on them by using their real names. But they are mean little people. Mean.

So in honor of Amanda, I’m going to do my own version of a power-pink-post-it of positive-thoughts and host my first giveaway. Post you’re favorite “positive thought” here sometime before midnight Monday night (5/19) and you could win a $25 Gas Gift Card. That’s right universe – for all the darkness resonating at some high school newspaper in Florida – I’m making a stride towards the light and giving someone a half a tank of free gas one-third tank of free gas.

MTV airs this masterpiece Mondays at 10pm ET/PT. It’s a little microcosm of the world – the struggle between good and evil, deadlines and prom dates – it’s just what your Monday nights have been missing.

And if you’re out there Amanda – keep your head up and your glasses on straight – high school ends and these nitwits will still suck.