The Shame of Youth

Last night, I dreamed about adults stuck in childhood.  They had childish ways, but they were fully grown.  They knew this.  Unlike adults who are cognitively delayed, these adults knew that they were immature.  They dressed themselves as adults in the daytime and they put on mask at night so that they were not recognized.  In the dream, you could tell the adults who were childish in the dark by the shame they displayed in the daytime.  You could look at them and see the secret they wanted no one else to see.  They were ashamed.  Immaturity looks good on something that is immature.  It becomes “the shame of youth” when you are too old to act that way.  It makes the adult feel like they are missing their mile markers.  I am a teacher and children have things that have to be taught in Elementary school so that Jr. High is possible.  I am a junior High school teacher.  Students who did not learn the basics in elementary school will struggle without a doubt in the higher grades.  Students who have not developed with the majority of their peers will feel the shame of dressing in the locker room and your buds have not blossomed.  Young boys will feel the sting of their peers gaining height and manliness when they still look like a boy.  An adult will feel the sting of immaturity when they think like children.  They will feel it when they do not have the ability to problem solve, for that is the immature trait that separates adults.  Adults will feel it when they are forty years old and they own nothing.  They have no house, no car, no family.  They have not progressed one day above a common teenager.  The shame of your youth is not the same as the shame of youth.  Everyone should look back at when they were younger and less refined and see a different person.  I take extreme pity on the person who looks back at their life and sees the exact same person.  Many immature adults are failed people.  They don’t do well in life.  Maturity begins when you take a look at what you have done and take responsibility for the mistakes that you have made.  Even if you are a victim and what happened to you was not your fault, it still now is your problem.  You have to solve that problem because you are responsible for you. 

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