Several joys come with teaching: the dictatorial power to give out detentions like candy, pretending not to laugh at the class clown’s joke, and pranking students who have fallen asleep by painting their fingernails.
Most of all, you will get the opportunity to listen to a high school senior describe their dreams, how they will change the world, and their oh-so-naive hubris in their future endeavors. And then you will see it.
It’s a glimmer in the eye. It contains hope, excitement, and a powerful love for life in a solitary look. It’s youth.
It’s fairly common to find this bright-eyed and bushy-tailed energy among the young, but it’s strikingly rare when you see it in an adult.
Society values adults for being consistent and dependable. We show up and do what we must. However, our dreams are often watered down or abandoned. Even when we get what we want, we usually realize that our dreams weren’t all they were cracked up to be.
Worse yet, we get stuck. We stay in a job we don’t like. Or we can’t escape the same patterns in relationships. Or we lose our love of learning/adventure/creativity. We trade in our dreams for stability. It’s not an illogical or unnecessary trade. When people depend on us, we are responsible, and there is nothing admirable about an irresponsible adult.
This is when the mid-life crisis hits. Buy a sports car, get plastic surgery, or hang out at a place you are way too old for. You hit rock bottom when you scroll through urban-dictionary for an hour after a conversation with your niece because you can’t understand a word she said.
However, your new car, new nose, and new lingo don’t eradicate the actual nagging feeling you have inside.
We make the most common mistake: mistaking external appearance for internal reality. We make our identity our external characteristics. For example, I tell people I am a data scientist, a tennis player, and a digital nomad.
Nobody gives a bluh about me being a data scientist. What people want to know is your story. In other words, age may be a biological reality, but youth doesn’t have to be.
My mother has a sign she put up in the house that says, “Bloom where you are planted.” My initial reaction was an eye roll. It is because people put so many signs with platitudes in their houses, and I just assume it is a deepity. (A deepity is a phrase that sounds profound, but it is a trivial statement when you take it apart.)
However, my mom’s phrase is the key to keeping that youthful energy about you. Yes, you have to be responsible and consistent when you are an adult. Most of your life decisions have already been made, your path has been chosen, and your roots have been put down.
Wherever your roots are put down, there are still adventures. There are new challenges to face. New people to meet, help, and connect with.
I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but when I chose to live in Haiti, part of me ran from the US. I thought US culture had died with the invention of the smartphone. I thought the US was where people were lonely and self-involved instead of community-oriented.
Only after returning could I reframe the challenges technology has given us as opportunities. All cultures and people get stuck in their challenges, viewing them as unsolvable and stagnant.
Reframing your challenges is the only way to keep the story going, and young people can do this reframing quickly.
Simply put, staying young is realizing your story isn’t over yet.
Life Update: My improv group had an awesome show and I almost broke my foot in the process.
The Purpose Driven Date 