The old look to the young in envy, craving to get back time that they no longer have, longing to stretch their limbs the way the used to. They scold the young for vocally worrying and fretting about their lives, but how can they no longer know? They were young once too, don't they remember what it is like?
Being young isn't just all parties and fun. No, it is quite the opposite. In most teenage lives, everything is as unstable as the wind. If it is not like this within the mind of a teenager at one moment, just wait. Something will come along soon enough to knock the illusion from their young brains and they will be in the same boat as all of the others.
Holding the badge of youth creates a pressure as heavy as a thousand pounds of gold. The expectations of society burn into their backs as they stand at the threshold of the rest of their lives. The fates of their futures rest in their inexperienced and uneducated hands and they are expected to choose the best paths to pave for themselves. The pressure, the stress, it is almost too much to bear with a sane and sober mind.
But look at me now, talking in the third person about an issue as close-reaching as this. I am not outside of this in the slightest. What I should be saying is: we. We are holding the weight of the world in our graduation caps and diplomas, and no matter how liberating that might feel after the long enslavement of our teen years, they bear the weight of pure lead on our shoulders.
We want to be strong and we try, but being young isn't as blissful a paradise as our elders reminisce and paint it out to be. Playing with fire and smashing our hearts to dust is what we do best, because how else are we to learn?
It is a dangerous, yet necessary game that we play.
It is the game of youth.
"Youth" by Daughter
"Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People
//Two songs for this entry, because both perfectly embody what I am trying to express: the desperate struggles of the wild youth.//
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Speculations of an Artistic Mind: Jane's Thoughts
Non-FictionEveryone has thoughts. These ones are mine.
