Thoughts Related to the Common Saying, "Youth is wasted on the young."

Give the young a break.

What many seem to forget is that youth is incredibly difficult for the young as they've had less time to "figure things out" than the rest of us have. When I say youth, I am referring to people in their teen years. At 22 I feel more youthful in a physical and mental sense than I ever have before, but I'm losing my cuteness. Though I am still young, I am not the "youth" I refer to here. I see myself at some sort of mid point between being "young" and no longer being "young." "Age ain't nothing but a number", sure -- unless you're trying to be accepted into a peer group that's like two decades younger than you are. What then? Look at a recent case like Britney Spears -- I think we should consider that her recent crises may stem from the bitter fact that she's irrelevant to the age group that she was trained to entertain. This, combined with her draining youth, is making her into a caricature of Young Bitchy Hollywood.

The literal youth I have left is definitely not being wasted: I refuse to waste my youth -- refuse to allow my elders to compromise my youthful exuberance on the basis that it makes them, they who have lost their youth (or otherwise let it grow weak and slip from their grasp), uncomfortable or fearful. The figurative youth I have, on the other hand, cannot be wasted. It is infinite.