In this beautiful transition period of my life, I have arrived at a pivotal moment in my life. At the tender age of sixteen, I have achieved perfect clarity about one of life's little mysteries.
I love to be near young children, for they speak with such excitement that it fills my heart with joy. To tiny toddler or carefree kids, the world is a game full of curiosities to discover, and when they do, they talk about whatever it is they find with an animation that is lacking in older generations. What I love most about children, though, is that ever present sparkle that gleams in their eyes. Looking into huge doe eyes all round with pure, unadulterated joy is on of life's small miracles. I feel secondhand curiosity and excitement when I smile down at a child and they grin back.
Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy the presence of adults, but it seems that they have lost that spark, that innocence, that is often found in the younger generation. As we mature, we stop opening our mouths and saying what we want, for we fear disapproval from our peers. Pressure builds up in the very pit of our being that causes us to lose faith in humanity, and we become mutes, allowing the world to knock us down and walk all over us. We essentially become doormats.
Once in a while, on rare and special occasions, some of that light returns to us, and for a fleeting moment, we assume the air of a child, that sparkle gleaming in our eyes again. Then, the last grain has fallen in the hourglass, and we become mutes all over again until somebody comes around to flip the hourglass upside down again.
In this rare moment of clarity, I have realized that in my transition from childhood to adulthood, I should not allow my sparkle to dim, but nurture it so that it will ignite and burn more brilliantly than ever before. This is the beginning of the rest of my life, and I won't allow the world to extinguish me.
