Y is for Youth

I probably could have done this post under the letter "A" for age, but since youth is really where it's at these days, I'll settle for this as my "Y" topic.  There's an old saying that goes, "Youth is wasted on young people," and I wholeheartedly agree with that.  Having had the 47 years of life experience that I've had, I feel I know a lot more than I did when I was say, twenty-something, and if I had my youth now...ooh I'd be all over this life!

So much can be said about the topic of youth and being young I'm not sure where to begin.  First of all, I believe that age is nothing but a number and how young you are depends on how young you feel and how young you present yourself.  I like to think that I am a young 47 year old...I'm in the best physical shape of my life, I'm pretty "in" when it comes to music, fashion, etc., and I'm slightly more prone to taking chances than a lot of my peers.

Taking chances is something that I think is something that separates being young and old.  Younger people tend to take more chances in life than the rest of us, and by taking chances I'm talking about doing something out of the ordinary, spur of the moment, a little crazy.  I'm sure anyone reading this can remember a time or two in your life when you did something so crazy that you would never entertain doing now.  These times serve as good memories and are the essence of living.

The chances I take are not like those that young people take because, well for one thing, my experiences in life tell me that going to an all-nite rave and taking drugs up the wazoo is probably not the best decision I could make. But I do still take chances in my life that are a lot less severe than the ones I took when I was younger.  Things like clubbing, going into the city, taking trips on my own, things like that, these are the chances I take in life...trying to keep myself out there.

Many of my friends don't do these things as often...some of them are settled down with partners, and the single ones have "played this game already."  So maybe that's why I feel young, because of my situation.  I'm almost five years into being single and forty-something and I'm still trying to sell some of those unused oats, I dunno.

Still, in a lot of ways I am still forty-something.  Getting older is something none of us can prevent, and though many try their darndest to prolong that as long as possible, I cannot afford Botox or plastic surgery so a little face cream and exercise is all I've got.  I'm not as prone to staying out as late as I did even just a year ago, keeping in shape takes more work than it did before, hair falls out where I want it and grows where I don't, and the aches and pains of forty-seven years slow me down sometimes...but I still consider myself young.

As I live through the rest of the days of this life, however long that may be, I want to stay as young as I can.  I can't stop the physical realm of aging, of course, gravity and time takes care of that, but when I'm 50, 60 or even 70 years old, I still want to get out on that dance floor like everybody's watching, and I still want to feel the wind in my face and the butterflies in my stomach as I navigate the hills of the tallest of roller coasters.  I want to experience as much as I can from life, as long as I am able to.  That's what youth is, to me anyway.

Image Source: i-must-b-butter-bc-im-on-a-roll

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