Youthful Life: X

"You don't get older, you get better" Shirley Bassey Birthdays are these odd days that remain seared into my mind's eye representing this arbitrarily significant repeating 24 hour span of my life. I can remember almost all my birthdays and each one remains important, even when it didn't go according to plan. There is this surreal aspect to your birthday coming around. It's a demarcated day dedicated to the celebration of you. For one day the world does seem to revolve around you. People come out of the woodwork, well-wishes pour, and suddenly you're the center of attention. It's as if the regular rules of the world are suspended. I don't know, there's something exciting about it but simultaneously it seems disingenuous. I want people to care about me year round, and to be able to articulate that consistently, not just on the special occasion of the day I was born. It's wonderful, and I appreciate it but I want that same kind of energy ...

Truth - No two people are the same. While that may be an infallible truth, we are more alike than we sometimes like to acknowledge. In another sense, there are just many things that make us unique as there are things that make us similar. We're exceptional but not the exceptions. We're complicatedly simple and also simply complicated. We're special and we're not special. "You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old" George Burns The rhetoric targeted at the millennial continually seems to get worse and worse each year, or maybe I'm just more cognizant of all the stereotypes others put on us, and the ones I was part of creating for myself. Millennials are hailed as the generation of narcissism, superficiality, social media, entitlement, idealism, and restlessness among other things. My issue with those stereotypes is not that they're necessarily wrong, but rather that they are remarkably limiting and leave little to no ro...

The 20s are all about confusion. Every single day my newsfeed on Facebook is laden with articles, videos, and blog posts (I get the irony) from friends, internet personalities, and famous people alike. They all prescribe magical cures to all of life's troubles, particular those for young people. The age of the twenty-something is one of tawdry attempts at self-help admonitions, unwelcomed guest lectures from just about anyone you give your time to, and way too much reflexive over-analyzation. I don't believe any of it. There are no quick fixes, no miracle drugs, or sure fire things (save big G - Himself). There's not one way to be anything or anyone. All you are is yourself. Time to act my age. One thing I absolutely abhor is people telling me what to do. I don't even think I have a problem with authority, complying with people's orders, or doing what I am told, but the mere fact that some has ordered, commanded, or proclaimed that I must do something rubs ma...