DO WHAT YOU CAN WHILE YOU CAN: WORD TO THE YOUNG

This is word for the young, especially the working, young adults. We are talented in many ways. We are energetic, adventurous, industrious, creative, zealous, committed, and every other good quality. Youth is wealth!

We seek to make meaning out of our lives. Many of us have already taken a direction in life, of a vocation, or for some, a profession. However, we can see some of whom we have the impression that they are wasting away and looking for short cuts to everything in life; wanting to earn without labour. This is sad. But such a regrettable situation is often covered by the many young people who are resourceful and productive. We see many of them showcasing what they are doing on social media. Congratulations to them.

Purposefulness

Let us pause and do a little check, each one for himself or herself: what meaning do we make out of life? What impact do we make around us? What legacy are we ready to leave for later generations? What shall we be remembered for?

There are many of us, young people, whose relevance might only be seen post mortem. But that is no big deal: such have made their own contribution towards the emancipation of the human race, and the glory of God (for those who believe in Him).

While you Can

We have our lives now to live. But as young people, and as young adults especially, we have one word that often drags us behind: tomorrow! We often hope for a better tomorrow. And this makes us forget that we have today to live and enjoy. It appears that some of us even have difficulties setting reasonable life goals. (Such need a guidance counsellor to help them make meaningful decisions for themselves).

There is no point letting time pass us by, while we do not see anything meaningful in our lives, and keep hoping for a better tomorrow. Someone said our lives are like a movie being recorded: can we be glad to watch it some day?

The Future!

We are not growing any younger. Our youthfulness shall soon slip away. There will come a time, when goodwill and brilliance of ideas shall not suffice, as we would have lost the energy of our youth. We might look behind at our past, and all we would think is: I would have done this and that…! But it will be too late. We shall be unhappy as old adults and aged people, if we feel underachieved at that time. There is nothing we would do then, apart from trying to accommodate lost opportunities.

In addition to this, if we spend our youthfulness unproductively, we might find ourselves overly critical in old age, having issues with young productive people (especially if we were never really nice to them), projecting our failures on others, being disgruntled about nearly everything… We can pre-empt an unhappy old age, and we can work for a happy one now.

The secret is, let us do what we can, while we can. Let us spend the energy, use the talents, dare, make mistakes, correct them, grow, learn from role models without trying to become them. Let us be young people!

This was first published on Facebook on 05 May 2017

Category: Reflections