THE GIFT OF YOUTH

By

Our-Zambia Writer

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It is said that the pride of youth is in their strength, while the glory of the old is in their grey hair. Dreams in life are very important. We should not fear to dream. Most of our dreams come in our youth, which makes it the most productive age of life. Everyone who is a grownup now has been a youth before. There are only three kinds of people who have not yet tasted youth: the unborn, the stillborn, and those still in childhood. Otherwise, all of us have been endowed with the world’s greatest natural resource, that of youth. Youth represents two great traits: strength and vision.

Youth is the hub of strength and energy. Physical strength is of great value to human survival. It brings tremendous benefits. A sound body and energized physique will help the youth do what most adults will struggle to do. As you grow older, you begin to see the difference between speed in youth and laxity in adulthood. Most people agree that the youth stage is the best age to invest one’s life in.

This age is filled with excitement and vitality. A young person can easily move from place to place and handle weights that would be impossible for an older adult to handle. He or she has the added advantage of enjoying most activities the elderly will find not exciting. It is in youth that you lay the best foundations for a life of wealth and prosperity.

Youth is not only viable for physical strength; research has proven that the youth stage is endowed with mental agility as well. We are more mentally alert and dexterous in our youth stage than in adult years. Our brains naturally begin to slow down at the young age of thirty. Despite the fact that we can easily revitalize the brain “hardware” through habits like exercise, resting, eating healthy foods, and making relationships, our youth remains the most potent reservoir of our mental capacity. At this stage our memory is strong, our resolve is solid, and our cognition is viable. We can therefore do more with our youth than with any age facility.

Let the old dream dreams and the young have visions. Characteristically, young people are capable, not only of envisioning, but also of bringing those visions to pass. I believe that visions are the prerogative of youth because they have the excitement and the drive to move forward. A vision, discussed at length in Chapter Twenty, is a mental picture of a desired future. In your youth you are more interested in your future than in anything else. While old people are busy ruminating over past glories, the young are actively chatting a way forward to an illustrious future. Envisioning is the most superlative success attribute of youth.

If you are a young person, you should be actively involved with envisioning your future. You should not wait for older people to tell you to. Don’t be like some people, who come to realize that they have not maximized their youth. Losing your youth can be the most disheartening experience of your lifetime. Plant seeds of greatness in your youth, and patiently wait for them to germinate.

If you do this, you will be glad when you reach the age of reckoning, an age when your physique and mental agility give up. At that time, you will wish you were a youth. The biggest upset of human experience is to wake up one day and find out that you are not a youth anymore. And the bad news is you never made the best use of your youth! Whatever you do, do not misuse your youth—the consequences are intractable.