Lost years

A friend of mine turned 26 recently. I cautioned him to think twice before calling me ‘old’ henceforth since he would be in my place soon enough. On a serious note though, I have just one thing to say to him: ‘youth comes just once and it passes by sooner than we realise’. This friend in question is a doer: someone who likes to do things and is always ready for fresh challenges. Of late however, I have seen a faint trace of cynicism seep into him, and he is no longer ready to jump into things as of old. He is more cautious and definitely wiser, but I wonder if he realizes the valuable years that he is losing through caution, by being cynical, and looking for ‘a reason and purpose’ to justify each effort.

The cushion is so much thicker when you are young. You can take risks, and if you fail, you can bounce back each and every time. But, as time goes by and responsibilities pile on the cushion wears thinner, and you no longer recover as you do in the past. It takes more time and leaves deeper bruises on the mind and soul.

As youngsters, we often leave things for the future and for a time ‘when we are older’: we wait for that day to dawn when we are old enough to make a start. We wait and we wait some more, and very often, there comes a time when we look back and realize we are just too old to start or to risk failure. It is a hard fact to bear, but we only wake up to the lost years when they long gone and over.

Youth comes once in a lifetime, and it is nothing short of magic. It is a difficult time to wade through: one of discovery, learning, stumbling, adjusting… I would advise extreme caution for all my young siblings, but while I say that, I would also ask them to take risks. One can always leaves things for better times, but there is no better time to start than when one is young – to lay foundations and to build on them. If you have big dreams as a youngster, dare to take the plunge while you have youth on your side.

Getting back to my friend, a word of advice for him, “Wipe the cynicism from your mind. Take the plunge and do the twist while you are young. Things may not always work out as you expect them to, but you will regret more never having tried when you had time and youth in hand.”

Failures can be reversed, but the lost years are never recovered.