356) Youthfully Ignorant

We've all heard that youth is wasted on the young. We all have things we wish we could tell our 13, 16, 18 and 21 year old selves in order to avoid mistakes and truly appreciate the past. Generation after generation grow old, and still we are unable to "teach" the youngins how to make the most of their prime years.

I myself frequently think back on things that I thought were so important and so serious five or ten years ago, and laugh. This too shall pass, I mentally inform all the lovelorn teenagers. Things are not as serious as you think, so just enjoy, I whisper wisely.

But for all my sagacity, there's a great probability that I'll look back on my 20's when I'm 50 and still feel a small sting of dang, I wish I had...

For what is youth, if not the unknown, if not the reckless optimism of naivete, if not the subject of a lesson learned? And what is aging, if not making those mistakes and figuring it out for yourself along the way? "Youth is wasted on the young" is a faulty, regretful and almost bitter sentiment. Youth isn't wasted on the young, because youth is the young (duh), in all its misguided awkwardness, freak outs over nothing, and pining for the impossible (heck, I still do this...still got it!).


(Oh, college. I look like a baby. I distinctly remember what's happening in this picture. My roommate was packing for a weekend trip home, and we discovered that I fit in almost all of her luggage.)