Sunday Scribblings topic for today was "mis-spent youth." They asked the following questions:
Did you "mis-spend" your youth? What kind of kid were you? Worrisome to your folks? Mature beyond your years? Wild? Shy? How did you spend you time? Out of curiosity, how many of you knew "what you wanted to be when you grew up" and accomplished it? How many times did you change your mind? Do you think your kid self would approve of you now?
I have an issue with the concept of mis-spent youth. What does that even mean? Are we supposed to be on a fast track to adulthood from the day we were born? Was my youth mis-spent because I was not taking part of myriad extra-curricular activities?
Our youth is a time of formation, of experimentation. It's a stage of life. The labels, the expectations, the timelines of youth are, just like those of adulthood, artificial constructs. There is not a recipe or template of how the perfect youth should be. Of course, there would probably be a consensus that a kid who breaks the law, gets mixed up in dangerous situations and/or ends up in juvie may be taking their life down the wrong path. But even instances like that can be learning experiences, and people can definitely rise above them.
I agree - it's really difficult to know what is mis-spent time, within certain limits I guess
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on so many levels!
ReplyDeleteI think I mis-spent my youth by being too serious. ;)
ReplyDeletethe whole point of my post,, and in essence i believe what you are saying here,,, is it doesn't really matter,, if we live long enough we all get old and eventually die... there may very well not be such a thing as misspent,, or well spent for that matter....
ReplyDeleteYou are completely right. If we were to follow the conception of "mispent" youth..then we would ALL be mispent.....
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100%.
ReplyDeleteNothing is MISPENT time, it is all just a bunch of experiences.
Some good, some bad, some we learn from...and some we dont.
I agree with you but like someone else just said I mis-spent my youth by being too serious in my teen years and again mis-spent is probably not the right way to describe it. Good Post.
ReplyDeleteKids can't misspend their youth, only their parents can misspend their kid's youth. The mistakes of kids are really their parents' mistakes. Kids have a great excuse, they're kids, and they don't know any better.
ReplyDeleteThe valid question is if you are misspending your present time. Enter midlife crisis.
People that don't have the guidance to figure out who they are when they were young because of a lack of adult guidance are left to figure it out on their own while an adult. Some try to stay a kid by not accepting responsibility for their life, but most eventually figure out who they are but this often occurs in midlife, or even later when they finally sober up.
The point of life comes down to experience. The idea of misspent experience is connected with our level of awareness. A full experience is when one is involved and aware of what is happening, while a misspent one is when it happens with little enjoyment.
These crises of life occur in people when they try to figure out why they are so disconnected from life. They want experience that they can connect with and fully enjoy. Some want experiences that they cannot obtain within the current structure of their life, so they try to change.
I don't think you can "mis-spend" your youth. Childhood is definitely over-rated, though. I agree with what my parents always said, that it gets better when you actually get to control & live your life.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I agree with you, Brian. I like being in the driver seat of my life.
ReplyDelete"The point of life comes down to experience. The idea of misspent experience is connected with our level of awareness."
I like that, Greg. And it applies to all experiences, good and bad.