Tuesday, May 6, 2008

How To Gain Wisdom For 200 Please?!



I am all of 22 years young. I say 22 years young because that's what I am. Young, full of life...unlived, unlearned and unknown life.

Four years ago I was just about to graduate high school, move away and had every intention on never looking back. It was all so new. It was exciting to think that I would be living on my own. And that's all I saw when I looked down that road of independence. What else would I see? Bills? Responsibility? Jobs? Of course not, I was 18 and there's something so naive about an 18 year old. You want to be a part of this crazy grown up world and yet you have no clue what it means to be grown up.

Today, I'm 22 and know what it means to be responsible, to pay the bills, to have a job, to go to class even when you want to sleep, to put the important things before the others.

Sound like I'm starting to finally get it all together? Wrong. I'm still so far away. Far away from where I know I will one day be. I'm so far from wisdom.

There is a reason we think of the older generation when we hear the word "wise". Because they've been around a little longer than us, they've seen more, they've heard more, they've lived more. Insight, knowledge, judgment.... these are all things that aren't gained over night. Time, experience, mistakes, these are things that can get you to wisdom.

When I was home last weekend I was watching Oprah with my momma at the house. She had the cast of Sex & The City on to promote their new movie coming out this month (by the way I do believe a mass girl night is needed May 30th when the movie opens ;). Anywho, Oprah began talking to the ladies about life. And then she asked a question something like, "Did you know who you were in your 20's?"

Everyone of the women said, "NO! Absolutely not!" They said that their twenties were their learning decade. That you have absolutely no clue in your twenties and that maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Maybe you're supposed to learn and make mistakes.

I thought about their answers and decided I liked them. It seemed more like a relief, it seemed like the answer I was looking for. Because it's so easy to feel so pressured to already know everything.... to know what you want, who you want and when you want it.

I'm here to say that some days I do know what I want and some days I'm absolutely positively clueless. I'm becoming ok with that. I'm young... very very young. I do not need all the answers right now. What I need is to go out and experience everything that I can. And the wisdom? Well, it'll come later. ;)

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