Holding on to Youth

Today I want to briefly explain why I refer to a lot of teens and young adults as "kids." It's not because I'm so much older than them, although I realize I'm widening the age gap day by day. It's because I firmly believe that young people should hold on to their "kid" card for as long as possible. Believe me, you will spend the rest of your adult life trying to reclaim it. I can't say that I don't understand why kids are so anxious to grow up. It's just that as I look back, I don't understand why I thought it was so important to grow up. It was the fact that to be a kid was to be naive. To be naive was to not know something. To not know something was to be uncool. Amazing how many things growing up revolved around our popularity status. Yet I could tell you all day long that popularity doesn't matter outside of high school and you would still continue to ignore me. The fact is that it matters in your life now and not having that status can really hurt. It's not like the popular kids don't have problems and never have to worry about anything. It's just that they are upheld as being the standard by which all uncool kids are measured by. Even their flaws add to their charm. They are the mature, fashionable, and attractive people that we see on TV and read about in magazines. They are society incarnate. And to be like them is to be one step closer to greatness. And in the process we risk losing a piece of ourselves. I probably come back around to this point more often than I should, but I'll say it again: Be who YOU want to be. Notice I said who and not what? Your job doesn't define you. Your role in the universe doesn't define you. Your personality, your view point, and your priorities are what define you. Consider what is most important to YOU and the rest will fall into place.