Dear Diary, The Death and Resurrection of Youth
Dear Diary, what is youth? An adage states, ‘youth is wasted on the young.’ Is youth referring to energy gradually fading away as one ages? Where does such energy originate? Youth is hope; youth is the ability to believe in a positive future outcome. When we are young, we are introduced to all kinds of information, factual and fantasy. We start to see problems with the world as we understand it and offer ideas on how they could be addressed. Those older than us quash our ideas as untenable, and we go back to the drawing board. We repeat this process until the message received is the problem(s) is(are) unsolvable. The hope fades, and youth dies. Add personal trauma such as abuse or neglect, and youth may pass swiftly and potentially be gone forever.
What feels like ages ago, I wrote, ‘Hope is the mechanism for meaning.’ In our younger days, our hearts are filled with meaning and purpose for the world and everything in it. We have a clear idea of right and wrong, and the existence of so much wrong is confusing. It is mainly through uncontrollable tragedy, the triumph and persistence of wrong, that we lose hope; we stop assigning meaning to aspects of life. We ask questions to which we are unlikely to find a satisfying answer, often ‘why’ certain injustices occurred. The lack of actionable solutions is corrupting, and young people haven’t yet developed the depth of resiliency skills needed to persevere. The burden of understanding failures on individual and systemic levels is heavy.
For some people, the story ends here. The hollowness left behind from our crushed childhood hopes was never replaced by anything positive. The pit of negativity festered and grew into a hateful adult who only made those around them suffer. Fortunately, not everyone succumbs forever like this; some people build themselves an emotional ladder and climb out of the pit carved out by society during their younger days. While feeling lost, jaded, and defeated is sadly typical, it does not have to be our inevitable destination.
For many of us, our childhood dreams are well and truly dead. However, as living beings, we will form new ones. What happens when we begin to work towards a goal solely of our design? As a child, we are more shaped by external stimulus. We are responding to what we are confronted with rather than being proactive in our direction. When we begin to have small individual successes the meaning we invested into the goal is returned to us with interest. Achieving something meaningful, regardless of scale, inspires more meaningful action. Inspiration to accomplish something meaningful is another way of saying, ‘hopeful.’
I disagree that ‘youth is wasted on the young.’ A positive outlook on the future and the drive to move in that direction must be cherished and nurtured, not extinguished. Failures are guaranteed along the path because we are imperfect. As such, it takes strength of character to fall and think, ‘that’s ok, it will be better next time.’ It may be initially easier to have such a perspective when we are younger and have not experienced many failures yet. However, what about after we’ve had some of life’s tragedies thrown our way? To look forward and still think it will be better takes courage. To allow ourselves a level of vulnerability sufficient to invest hope, meaning, into life at the risk of failure (and pain) is admirable. Youth is the ability to do just this and is why we see the ‘young at heart’ regardless of physical age. Open your heart and invest in your life; you are worth it.