Y is for Youth

Since we are reminiscing, I wanted to shoe gaze a little on how the phrase “Youth is wasted on the young” really does ring true.

When you’re young, you almost always “want to be an adult”; I see this in my son all the time. He just can’t wait to be on his own so he can do whatever he wants. Which of course, we all know once you’re grown, you can’t do whatever you want because there are consequences for that. It’s not just eat what you want, do whatever, whenever. It’s the same as the age old, “When I have a job I can spend money” but then you have no time to spend it on the fun stuff you thought.

I remember thinking how awesome it would be when I was an adult; how mature everyone would be. I now see that most adults I know are still children. They act and say things that are so immature, it’s shocking they made it this far.

Then of course there’s the fact that when you are young, (most) children are in good shape and can run around, never have aches and pains, and don’t get phased by temperature. I never remember feeling bothered by the heat when I was young. As I went through my 20s and 30s, I was rife with issues. Nothing awful but general back pain, some carpal tunnel, etc. It’s kind of funny though because now that I’ve lost so much weight, I feel better than I did even back then. I actually do feel youthful. Not maybe as good as I did when I was, like, 11. But pretty good.

Essentially, kids don’t have the scope and experience to really be thankful for their youth. It’s one of the great quandaries in life: when you CAN appreciate it, it’s too late.