Things an 8th-grader can teach you

By Justine Wang on November 6, 2012

People don’t look to the youth for advice often enough. After a conversation with an 8th grade girl in my new neighborhood in South LA, I was reminded of the concept of joy and happiness. My roommates and I hosted two girls from our neighborhood for dinner and got to know them, their families, and even their schools better. One of them talked about being hyper off of coffee like it was fun and energizing. She talked about sugar-highs and laughing at herself so much that she would forget why she was laughing in the first place but then kept laughing just because.

I had completely forgotten that I used to have similarly memorable happy days where I drank coffee not to wake myself up on a cold and cruelly early morning, but for the sole purpose of bouncing off walls. I can hardly remember what it was like to laugh at

myself while deliriously high on sugar to laugh because there were no worries in my life, to keep laughing for no other reason than because it felt good, and just to laugh for no reason at all. At this age, I don’t do any of that anymore, nor do I know anyone who really does that for an extended period of time because there’s always something to sober us up in the end. Being unhappy is too contagious. When people are unhappy, it’s hard to talk about anything else.

Who would’ve thought that youth can teach us something? But its their youthful exuberance, that very same one that we once had, that creates this learning experience. What is the world teaching its adults as they leave their childhood and enter adolescence? If we aren’t paying attention, we often grow up being poisoned by the darkness of the world, because nobody tells you the truth about happiness. Every billboard, media, and commercial proclaims that this product will bring you joy… This iPhone will fulfill your dreams… This car is all that you need to be happy… Being beautiful is the key…

We constantly look for reasons to be happy only to find that there isn’t anything that will sustain the good feelings because this world itself is deprived of light and joy. Youth can be an evasive thing, but it’s possible to maintain. Sometimes, you have to create your own happiness within the darkness and spread that light like a disease. Find the things that are actually life-giving and see how much that changes you. Then, you’ll start to see that there are things to be happy about and it doesn’t make sense not to give in to the bliss of being happy.

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