Youth is a privilege and a curse. A privilege in the sense that ignorance is bliss, so much awaits you, and your health, both mentally and physically, is at an all time high. However, because of these things, it’s also a curse.
As we grow up, we learn that putting our hand on top of a stove will burn us, a broken heart really is as bad as people say it is, and not everyday is going to be one you’ll want to remember. However, amidst the bad consequences we encounter here and there, we somehow find a way for mom and dad to fix it, the boo boo from the soccer game to heal or for those five detentions you got to be excused.
What comes of this is a sense of invincibility; a sense that nothing can happen to you. Of course we hear of tragedies, via friends/family or the local news updates on our phone but when it hasn't personally affected us, we seem to have escaped a tragedy yet again and we have a hard time letting it affect us.
As teenagers, this can be dangerous. When we are nurtured and young we have this idea that there is some sort of safety bubble around us, so we continue to push the limits.
Maybe you take it to the next step by trying some new drug, even though you read a story yesterday about it killing someone last week or maybe you drive high because you’re convinced “it’s not as bad as driving drunk and you’re a great high driver”.
Next month, I will be leaving the teenage years, a wake up call that it's time to hang up the superhero invincibility costume up for good.
Despite what you might not want to hear, that safety bubble you thought you had, it can be popped. You might learn that when you’re young, or it might not happen till your older. But when you finally learn it, anytime you complained of anything or anytime you did something stupid knowingly, will be your biggest regrets. Why? Because sometimes people have life taken away from them without any choice or doing anything wrong. So why continue to make knowingly bad decisions just because you're convinced that one bad thing won't happen to you?
A few months ago, I had a friend in a terrible car accident. It was caused by a drunk driver which sent her and two friends straight to the hospital with critical injuries. Luckily, she got out in a few days with injuries that could be healed but her friend had to be put in a coma. While on Instagram the other day I saw her post a video of her and her friend dancing and the caption read “Rest In Peace." After months in a coma, the family decided he wasn’t going to come out of it. I looked at this video over and over. I couldn’t stop watching it. It was clearly a Snapchat video or Iphone video of some sort. They were dancing at a party and singing songs and I’m sure the last thing on their minds was that they wouldn’t be able to do this in a few months.
The video was so familiar, not because I had seen it before but because I could see myself and my friends in it and it made me realize how quickly your world can turn upside down.
This was one of those moments in your life where you feel so guilty that something had to happen like this for you to realize just how much to cherish life and stop complaining about the stupid stuff.
My friend and her two other friends were doing absolutely nothing wrong. But because of someone's stupid mistake, a life was taken away. I bet that person driving that day thought they "were a great drunk driver" and "nothing would happen."
The point of this article isn't to be depressing. The main motivation stemmed from the heightened responsibility I feel with starting a new decade of my life.
Be happy with the life you have now. Yes, I don’t know what each of you readers are going through but you’re reading this article aren’t you? Just be thankful for everything and everyone around, don’t take one second for granted, and know that safety bubbles don’t exist.
