Youth

There are a lot of aspects of being a teen/young adult I genuinely do not understand. Maybe it was the way I was raised, maybe it’s just because sometimes I feel like I’m actually 35.

This is probably exemplified in how I feel about parties. Whenever I go to a party, and there’s loud music, people sort of writhing on one another, I feel like I’m at the zoo, observing the behavior of some very exotic animal. It’s the type of event where you have to yell in someone’s ear to be heard and people go from dancing to an intense DFMO (dance floor make-out for all you over 40s) I never feel like a participant, always an observer.

There’s many aspects of reckless youth I can’t quite bring myself to participate in. I like going to bed at a reasonable hour. I’d rather wake up early and head to the coffee shop with a book. I know, I know, I cringed at that sentence too. I’m pseudo-intellectual, holier-than-thou trash. But there is one aspect of being young and a little bit nuts that I like. We’ve yet to put ourselves in boxes, to give in to broader social norms. We’re constantly reinventing and changing ourselves. We aren’t set in our ways. We still have ridiculous dreams. I think this stage of life is about seeking authenticity, in who we are, what we do, the people we surround ourselves with.