Dance in the rain

One of the worst things about being young is that a young person often has no concept of “tomorrow”. Because of this, they also can’t imagine themselves growing old. It is absolutely impossible for them to imagine that the old person giving them advice was once young like them.

There are lots of things I’d like to teach young people, especially when I see young people who are like I was when I was young. I was never very confident, never thought I was smart, never thought I was attractive, and because of this lack of confidence, I don’t think I was as successful as an adult as I could have been. These aren’t sour apples I’m hurling, it’s just a bit of hindsight with a dash of “I wish I could have” added as spice.

One of the things that I didn’t learn young, was the lesson taught in the graphic to our left.

Much of my life I was worried about what people thought of me, so much so that I wasted years trying to be something I wasn’t. I miss those years I could have had being me, and if I could teach a young person anything, I’d like to teach them to just be. Don’t worry about the storm, enjoy the rain.

Another thing that I’d like young people to learn is that there is power in numbers. While it is often difficult for a single voice to be heard, find others like yourself, and let your joined voices create power you can’t find on your own. This is why it matters that our young people vote. Joining your voice to others is where you find that you do in fact have power.

Hypocrisy is everywhere. It is as much a part of our world as is sunshine and clouds. We have to see it, and sometimes it calls for us to shrug off things that we have been taught from our very earliest childhood.  Sometimes we need to examine what we learned from our parents, and make the painful decision that perhaps we are only seeing part of the truth. This is perhaps the hardest thing to learn, and some of us just can’t break away from the way we were raised and speak with independent voices.

It is a vast universe, and we will never stop learning new things. Young people are often jaded and discouraged that there is nothing new for them to discover.  The possibilities are endless, and all we need do is to have the confidence in our own abilities, and the freedom of knowing that we matter.