Lucy Samuel
The overarching problem of my essay is the conflict between a desire to enjoy one’s youth and maximize the potential of this time, and the dire consequences of typical “youthful” behavior. Regarding my intention in writing this essay, my only hope is that a reader will recognize the presence of this paradox and welcome the acknowledgment of his or her behavior into his or her consciousness.
I believe that for the most part, teens and young adults are aware of the illogical connection between appreciating one’s existence and simultaneously jeopardizing that very existence, and yet many young people fail to genuinely connect this concept to their own lifestyles. I suppose that this paradox being the “problem,” or “question” of my essay, the centralizing subject is simply growth and maturity.
I place both Mike and myself in a specific time: the day at the grocery store. By extending the dialogue that took place that particular day, I am able to move the essay through the subject of teen behavior and maturity and pose my own meditations on the developmental reasons for this adolescent behavior. Essentially, I’m showing the reader a place to which he or she can relate, and introducing an argument to which he or she may not have given a lot of previous though.I believe it’s important for my audience to read about my, and Mike’s, experience with adolescent recklessness because while it is something that everyone encounters at some point, it is often ignored or not given a lot of thought.
My essay is absolutely not intended to change anyone’s mind about their behavior, nor is it a sermon on harmful immaturity. All I aim to do in this piece is merely discuss a subject that is generally only lightly analyzed. Everyone has had the experience of wanting the present to last forever, and yet everyone has had the experience of doing something bad for themself; I want to try and figure out why these clashing experiences coexist. The role of time plays a large part in this conflict. As I explained, Considering the ‘2+2=’ essay metaphor, the management of desire added to the danger of careless youthful behavior creates a solid problem. If I still had my copy of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism, I’d look up the section in which he discusses the philosophy of human desire.
3 comments:
Challenging the "youth is wasted on the young," eh? ;)
Just something else that you could mention: there is a sense in this world that no one is exactly happy with his or her age. Kids in elementary school are dressing in more "adult" clothing and worrying about boyfriends while the TV displays add after add promising to make anyone look younger. The age we're at now, where apparently most people want to be, is still not always looked highly upon. Strange.
As a question of clarification, is acting recklessly the major qualifyer for 'youthful behavior?'
Interesting problem. Good luck.
This is a really interesting topic--and I'd be interested to read it to see the exact angle that you're taking on it.
Here’s a question that I could see potentially coming up in the reader’s mind: Part of enjoying and appreciating one’s life comes from living life to the fullest in the ways that one enjoys to do so; which for young people, often involves potentially dangerous situations—maybe the rush from the dangers is part of what makes people appreciate and enjoy the occurrence because they’re extending out of their comfort zone. Most young people participate in potentially dangerous behaviors to some degree—especially on college campuses. And, if people spent their whole youth in fear of this, would that really still be enjoying life? And then, wouldn’t a new paradox be created?
I think most everyone can relate to the paradox that this essay works with.
This made me think about the idea of wanting a moment to last forever (or your youth) and kind of ties in with what Larissa wote. In some ways it seems our culture has a tendency or desire to constantly be preparing for the next stage in life. All through high school we are getting prepared for college, and then we get to college and start thinking about grad school and the cycle never ends. It seems we are never happy enough with the moment or stage of life we are in so we look to the future. At the same time, I have most certainly wanted my youth to last forever, so it is indeed a challenging paradox. My question is: if we want to stay young forever, then why do we also want desperately to get to the next stage in life?
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