I remember spending countless hours as a young child, peering into what I thought the future would be, flirting majorly with the idea of myself and the world, several years from where ever I stood in time and wishing it all to happen so fast so I could get to where I could only access in my dreams. My favourite game at the time, was "playing grown ups", pretending to be a mother, wife, doctor, journalist, actress and everything else but my youthful self. I certainly enjoyed cooking and sometimes eating make believe "pepper-soup" with sand, water and flowers lol (I guess that was the youth in me). Like a lot of other kids, I couldn't wait to grow up in so many ways and yet in some ways I wasn't prepared to give up my youth. Now the future I dreamt of so many times is finally here, I look back and wish I spent more time being a kid. I can't entirely say my youth was wasted because I did a lot of silly things a young child is expected to do, but I also took myself waaaay too seriously. Especially in secondary school. While most girls wanted to have a reputation for being the "hardest babe" in school or the one who has gone out with the most guys e.t.c., I simply had no interest in such frivolities. I have always been very adept at doing the right thing at the right time, not necessarily thinking the right things at the right time BUT at least I maintained control over my actions and this is something the youth of today lack.
Given the amount of information we are clogged with on any given day, thanks to the internet, I am not surprised that today's youth know a little more than they should or can handle. So the fact they appear to be spiralling out of control shouldn't come as a shock. We have blamed parents, broken homes, weak school systems, the government, God and technology in our bid to justify the disappointment that is today's youth but why aren't we blaming them? We have all been young once upon a time and yes we thought we had seen the worst, but innovation has meant the worst of the worst is yet to come so the problem isn't entirely in the amount of exposure the youth of today have. It is also in their character. The other day, I read about Kimberly Walsh (Girls Aloud), who revealed she had only had two lovers (a.k.a.sexual partners) and immediately rushed to read the comments following her revelation. Judging by the comments, I could sense that a lot of young people do not read the Daily Mail and secondly, a lot of parents were happy to have one positive story out of celebdom, to share with their kids whom I can be certain would mostly reply "So what? She is no Cheryl Cole that would explain the lack of interest from men. Besides how uncool is she......just two boyfriends her entire life. How boring?" Sad but this was the reply I got from a young person when I shared this piece of information with her. Interestingly, there is a follow up article on Kimberly's story this morning, with the writer putting Kimberly's lack of promiscuity down to her luck, rather than morality. Saying she has been incredibly fortunate to find two good men she has stuck with (personally I disagree with this). Morality is not inherently conditional. Besides if the first man was wholly good, a one-man woman like Kimberly wouldn't have needed a number two (duh!).
Having younger siblings has also been an eye opener. I have heard so many stories that make me worry deeply for my unborn children. Stories of young girls aged 16 to about 21, owning sex toys and declaring it proudly on Twitter, having multiple sexual partners a la Samantha Sex and the City (she is a fictional character for goodness sakes!), holding orgy sessions in 5* hotels, paying younger boys to spend "quality time" with them when their boyfriends are unavailable and all other kinds of craziness that I don't even feel comfortable typing. The guys aren't any better, with boys as young as 8 smoking and binge drinking, walking around with pitbulls (and their signature oversize Adidas tracksuits), beating each other up and innocent passersby for no reason and of course the credit card fraudsters trying to live like the Hip Hop stars they idolise.
I may have been boring for not ever having a boyfriend until I went to uni, for not ever smoking or drinking heavily (or just generally being badly behaved), BUT I'm glad that for all the times I wanted to grow up fast, it was for the right reasons like being accomplished. Thanks to strict parents and being level headed, I enjoyed and am still enjoying my youth!
