The Flaws in Young People--A Paragraph a Day

Don't laugh at youth for their affectations; they are only trying on one face after another to find their own.
-Logan P. Smith

I'm always amazed at how often I see older people so very ready to criticize younger people for pretty much anything they do.  It's like these older people have forgotten that they, too, were once young, and that they, too, did some really silly and crazy things.  They like to point out flaws in younger people without acknowledging the fact that most of what these young people know, they were taught by people older than they are.  I feel bad for the young people when I hear others criticize them for their actions or their thoughts or their perspective on life, knowing that these things have been strongly influenced by the older people who have been teaching them--in one way or another--their whole lives long.  Yes, young people make mistakes and do some silly things, but they have good reason to do so.  They're young, they're impressionable, and they're trying to figure things out in their lives, often without having ever learned just how to figure things out.  Personally, I enjoy being with them because they are trying, and they are doing their best.  I'd much rather spend time around young people who are doing their best to become the people they should be than spend time around older people who don't have anything better to do with their time than to criticize the young.