Are We Wasting Our Youth?
Asking the question, I am terrified to answer.
“Enjoy your youth while you can. It will only go downhill afterwards.”
- too many people, on too many occasions.
Being young is supposed to be great. No responsibilities, tons of free time, plenty of “firsts”, and no existential dreads lurking around the corner. As someone who isn’t experiencing the youth portrayed in popular TV-Shows or on several Instagram-feeds, I am prone to deduce that I am wasting my youth.
But I believe this to be a too superficial point of view. One thing I learned in law school was to define everything. Maybe that will help with my problem.
Youth
The concept that being young is the best time of your life ranges back a few decades. It stems from a time in which schools weren’t teaching outdated skills, social media hasn’t caused depressions in teenagers, and the world’s climate wasn’t on the brick of a collapse.
Of course, — almost — every generation had their challenges. But this also means that we have to view such statements in their proper context: The glorification of the state of being young is oftentimes supported by the idea of being free.
Youngsters are allowed to be naive and stupid, enabling them to live in the present with neither…
