Youthful Life: X

Truth - Giving has to cost you something; time, energy, or something material. Sacrifice is inherent to giving, It is only by giving that get something. That something is exponentially more important than the that you incurred. It is the difference you made is someone else's life and subsequently your own. This notion of community service as being selfless is untrue. Community service is about building connection and this idea of detached philanthropic efforts is part of the problem.  This is humanitarianism. "The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy." Irving Babbitt It's the season where our morality apparently starts to kick in because the jingling bells of donation cans, gift drives, soup kitchen serving, food pantry stocking, retirement home card making and all the rest become abundant. In our oblivious excess, we somehow see the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. I struggle living in a city when it comes to givi...

The 20s are all about doing the most. There is no other time in our lives that will be like this. College is a microcosm of ideal situations that come together. With little responsibility save your own well-being, it's the best time to live life the fullest. Get as much out of what you are able to do daily here because sooner or later it'll be over and life changes, for better and worse. Adventure, explore, and exert yourself - what have you got to lose? You'll never know what you're capable of unless you push yourself; this is running on empty.   You know how people have that one thing they are super passionate and knowledgeable about? It's the thing that they can talk about endlessly and when they do their eyes light up. For a lot of guys I know it's sports, alcohol, or cars. I on the other hand don't care for any of the above but have learned a lot, particularly in the past year about them all. Learned the basics of rugby and lacrosse, nuances of brew...

The 20s are all about making the right choices. For every right turn we make, there's always the wrong one. For everything good we do, there's always the alternative of the bad. For all the times we go up, there are still so many things that threaten to bring us back down. Each and every day is full of an abundance of choices. We decide things constantly for ourselves and sometimes for others. We try to figure out what will be best for us and sometimes we do, and sometimes we honestly just don't. We never know what lies ahead of us we get there. Turn right. Do you ever find that there's too much choice in your life? I think one of the most poignant times it ever occurred to me that someone could have too much self-determination (in this case access to resources and opportunities) was my former friend who just never seemed to know what we wanted to do in college, much less his life. On a larger scale, there can be times where there are so many options, a see...

Being a teenager is all about being young, a little bit wild, and a whole lot of free. Teenagedom is the quintessential time to be the best you possible. That means the perfect blend of spontaneous and responsible (in the most young adult of ways). Just because we're in college does not, I repeat NOT give us a free pass to be a bunch of rambunctious idiots. AKA yelling YOLO and then proceeding to do something absolutely foolish is not acceptable. I like to think we can all be better than that. I don't know where you're livelihood comes from but I just take a swig from the fountain of youth. The word youth is not synonymous with maturity, but everyone (adults, and young people) alike are pretty sure it is. I'm here to prove it wrong. Drinking from the fountain of youth doesn't entail downing jaeger bombs and doing keg stands until you spew alcohol out your ears. It's about being young, as in open-minded, curious, and interested about the world around you. I w...