Young and Soulful
I have to admit that being young is adventurous. It is said by our elders that being young is a blessing, some of them even wish they could go back to being young again! The irony, however, is that many youths don't see how much of a blessing they have simply by being young. Is it that we see the value of our youth only after it is past? Not exactly.
The average youth, so full of life and ambitions, ideas and goals, dreams for the future, and a whole life ahead of him, looks forward to this youthful adventure with glee at the early stage. With time, the challenges along the way, the seemingly endless decisions we have to make, the risks we have to take, the heartbreaks, the broken promises, and the hurts, just to name a few, all make being a youth seem like anything but a blessing.
This is the time of our lives when we are naturally expected to lay the foundation of the future we dream of, it is a time we have to put in conscious and diligent efforts to actualize our dreams. I dare not ignore the fact that it is also a time of unimaginable distractions. Here lies one of the first dilemmas we face. Should we just enjoy our youth, after all, there's a popular saying that goes "You Only Live Once?" Or should we focus and avoid all the "fun" of being a youth?
There should be a balance. Some of us fail to realize this and end up frolicking with this paramount stage of our lives. Others decide to face it with all seriousness and hence miss out on actually being young. These two instances produce adults who will sometimes wish to relive their youthful days. That, however, is just one of the countless decisions we have to make as youths. It is probably the most important.
The obsession with falling in love defines a lot in the life of the youth. This isn't peculiar to youths, but with our lack of experience, we have a hard time knowing what love is, how to identify love or even when to "fall in love". It usually starts with the feeling of infatuation which we often mistake for love. Our first crush comes at the age of thirteen, twelve, or fourteen. We're swept off our feet by this ecstatic feeling. One cannot even tell who has the greater battle, the male gender or the female.
She feels she has found "the one", he's the only person that fits into her fairytale world. He feels she holds the key to his heart, he's intoxicated by this girl, and he can't stop thinking of her, this is definitely "the one". The question of what to do becomes a Herculean puzzle to fix. Should we make our feelings known, should we keep it to ourselves, should we tell someone else about it, should our parents know?
Sometimes we decide to keep these feelings to ourselves, a typical African parent will not expect you to ask such an "ungodly" question. They probably don't expect us to feel these things, but it's hormonal, can we help it?
With time, these feelings fizzle out and we realize it wasn't permanent after all. Sometimes, we decide to explore, and in the end, we are gifted with our first heartbreak. The hurt is unimaginable, we don't believe we'll ever recover.
Does the heartbreak end there, when we learn? No, it probably only begins. We are constantly in the battle with our own emotions, and with this battle sometimes comes defeat; we fall and we rise, over and over again, some more than others.
We have unlimited decisions to make and as we grow, they seem to grow with us. Questions arise in our minds: What is our purpose, what should we study at the university, who should we have as friends, and what should we do now and then? An overbearing list of questions is therefore created, some left unanswered.
How can we attain a balance? We are young, we are full of life and we should be able to live and not just exist. We should do things that make us happy, hang out with friends, try out new hobbies, and learn new things, all without forgetting our dreams for the future, and deliberately working towards achieving them.
We are young. As such, we need help too, from those who have gone before us. We need guidance. We need love, we need protection. We need to hear their experiences so we can learn, we need someone to listen to us, we need someone to hug us when we are overwhelmed, and someone to pray for us and with us. We need someone to let us know that we can be the best, someone to root for us, we need to feel we are not all alone in this world.
We are young, we are young.
We have dreams, we have goals, we want to be great, we want to do great, we are full of life, we are full of charisma, and we need to know how best to channel this energy, so we can achieve our dreams and have a bright future.
We hope that after all these when tomorrow comes, we too will become that "someone" to the young and soulful ones.
Author's Bio
Presently, Esther C. C is a student in the Department of Microbiology, she is a writer- the author of the SHEWRITES Series which she posts on her blog and Facebook.
She is a fashion designer, a music composer, and a chorister. She loves fictional novels and can spend hours lost in their pages. Her favorite authors are Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chinua Achebe, and Buchi Emecheta. She sees writing as her way of changing the world, "one word at a time." And a way of creating her own world.
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This is a great read. Captures a whole lot. May we win on this tide called youthfulness.
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DeleteThank you.
DeleteNice read
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