Youthful Life: X

" Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones." George C. Lichtenberg Maybe it was because of all that I experienced but I don't have the same nostalgia that I see so many of my friends do for high school or college. I have never wanted to go back. I can pinpoint specific people that I still think about and that I care for but besides that there is no longing for me to return from whence I came. Even in the past year I've had multiple opportunities to visit my alma mater and I turned them down. I think I decided that I would never return there. Too much happened and I'm still processing it all three years later. What I mean to say is I have more than outgrown the place. I know for me there has been nothing more me to take from there. I took all that I could, learned from it, and went on my way. That's...

Truth - It's part of human nature to recall the bad times more often than the positive things that we experience. Those embarrassing moments, the tragedies, and all the struggles we endure stick out in our minds like a Kardashian at a MENSA meeting. We carry the pain, worry, and fear of things that happened with us wherever we go. Everyone endeavors to move on from what occurred in the past but some moments are too big to discard. What about when we keep making the same mistakes? What has to change for us for it to sink in? How do you hold on and never let go? " We need to change the culture of this topic and make it OK to speak about mental health and suicide" Luke Richardson If there was one thing I wish I could make normal it would be that it was socially acceptable to actually share how you're doing and be authentic about it. If only it was okay to tell other people how you're really doing all the time. I would want it to not be weird, off-putting, or ...

Truth - There's no way that you can ever fully be prepared for the real world. We live in bits and pieces of it as we move through life. No one actually gets to experience it in its entirety. The little sliver though that we do get to live through is more than enough. Each day we enter and exit different parts of the microcosms that make up their terrifyingly beautiful world. It's a great big world out there. It asks us to figure it out but never stays the same. You know those nights that people talk about having hit the bottle a little too hard, that's how life can be sometimes; stumbling through the dark, slightly intoxicated. This is sobering up.  " The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love" William Sloane Coffin Jr. To be quite honest, I don't quite comprehend how people make friends outside of college. It's now that I'm out of my little universe(ity) that I realize how facilitated the experienc...

Being a teenager is all about learning from your past, living in the present, and looking towards your future. Summer gives you time off (some might argue a little bit too much off, we should all do year-round school ) to just sit and think (and then act the fool). It's the perfect time to just vegetate and really answer those tough life long questions we all have. What's the purpose of what I'm doing? Am I on the right path? Who the heck am I? Who did I used to be? This is another life. High school - looking back, I can wholeheartedly understand why it's the most tumultuous time in people's lives. It's a hot a mess and a half of angst, melodrama, and longing to fit in. That place is a hot bed of disaster waiting to erupt. This week I went to visit my sister at school and to see some of my old teachers. I signed in at at the office and just walked in like it was NBD. Instantly, I was returned to those feelings of being sick to my stomach, unbearably nervous,...

Being a teenager is all about being part of a community. I would argue that our entire lives stem from being involved with different groups. We're all in cliques, bromances, friendships and relationships. We as people need other people to validate our human experience (let me not get super liberal arts whacked our on you all). We strive to belong and to be accepted. When we are not, it's devastating and quite possibly the most hurtful thing that can happen to us (in it's most basic form). Well the question then is, which clique reigns supreme? Coming to college everyone says is your clean slate. Everyone starts off on a level playing field but let's be real, never has that ever been true, nor will it ever be. As long as people are different (so like forever and ever) there will never be definitive equality. No one may have known you when your first stepped foot on campus but your fate socially was determined quickly by who you decided to associate with. People exagg...

Being a teenager is all about reliving the supposed best days of your life. It's about taking a look big and seeing how far you've come. It's flipping through the pages of your life like the picture filled work that is your high school yearbook. It's about being conscious of you are now, as opposed to who you were before. It's about never forgetting where you've been. It's the glory days. *Here's another one - fresh off the video editor, the accompanying vlog post all about rethinking and encountering those godforsaken high school glory days. Enjoy. High school is one of the most memorable places of all time. It cannot be denied that high school is your first real taste of the world. Everything is thrown at your from relationships, to friendships, school work, jobs, community service, and all the excessive drama in between. High school is your entire life when you're in it and when you finish your four years it's unbelievable. Looking ba...