Appreciate Your Youth

From the time we're little we want to be older. As kids we play dress up, raiding our parents closets and putting on a purse and high heels (for us girls) or if you're a boy finding dad's work shoes and one of his ties. In this sense, pretending to be grown up is cute and shows our parents that we love and look up to them, but people's desires to grow up make me wonder...

As I look around at the youth (in Toledo at least), I worry about these kids and also worry what will become of the generations after them. I see kids that can't be any older than 13 walking down the street, cigarette in hand. There are the 7th and 8th grade girls that cake make-up on their face because society tells them it makes them pretty. In high school all anyone thinks about is getting out to go to college. Get away from the parents, the rules, the people. And finally, in college, there are those who opt for the fake ID, making them that golden age of 21. But why? Why does everyone want to be older? Why are we wishing away our youth?

Then there are those who don't necessarily choose to grow up but are forced to. Those kids who don't have the best lives at home, who work to pay the bills for whatever the reason, or take care of their baby sister or brother. They witness and are put through trials that force them to make decisions that they should never have to make and they mature too fast.

Society has made adulthood look appealing to youth in some way that I cannot grasp. Why for instance would someone at the age of 12 want to spend 30 minutes in the mirror getting ready for school? What would make kids want to smoke? What makes them think it's fun to do drugs and drink during high school, things that cause many kids trouble and sometimes lead to jail, something no child should ever have to experience, but do because of the choices they make. Is it because of what we see on t.v. and in the movies today? We as "adults" have become desensitized to what we see and allow the youth to watch what we watch without realizing that those watching with us are young and impressionable and pick up on what they see in a way we do not understand.

When talking to a former high school teacher the other day the topic of teen pregnancy came up. I was informed that approximately 15 sophomores alone were pregnant over the duration of the school year. 15 SOPHOMORES ALONE. That doesn't include seniors, juniors, and Heaven forbid, any freshman that might have been pregnant. Once these girls have their babies (and those boys who choose to be fathers) their lives will be turned upside down. Their definition of fun becomes different from those their age who do not have a child. At that point they are grown up and have to be because they're taking care of someone so young and vulnerable.

It's funny when you think about it--kids wish their time away, wanting to be older and yet, once adults reach a certain age, they wish they could be kids again. When they're kids and grandkids reach a certain age, a trigger is switched and they tell stories, reminiscing about their days in high school and college. The elderly would give anything to be young and more agile again instead of always in pain from things like arthritis or other health problems that arise after age sets in. Older women wish they didn't have to cake the make-up on to cover up wrinkles.

I can't lie and say that I've never spent time wishing that I was older for whatever the reason. But I can say after thinking about it I'm going to start appreciating what I have left of my childhood and youth. Maybe work a little less and play a little more--because after three years I'm not going to have any other choice. After that there's no turning back. You only get to live your childhood once. I'd rather spend it acting foolish and having fun than wasting it away wishing I was older, just to wish I could have it back.