Youth.  It is a very valuable thing, perhaps more so then any one thing in the world.
  Spanish explorers died searching for it in Florida.  People spend thousands and thousands
  of dollars on surgery to retain the look of youth.  However, the appearance of youth is not
  the same as the actuality of it.

  As a young person, you have argued with your parents, with your elders.  You never
  understood their actions.  There is a gap of understanding across the ages.  You can’t talk
  to them, and they can’t talk to you.  The reason for this?  They have lost their youth.

  They cannot remember what it is like to walk down the street and KNOW that you shall
  live forever…that you shall never grow old, never gain the dreaded Responsibility, never
  conform to the standards of society.  Never become like…them.  Like your parents.

  They have grown Old.  Growing up is no crime, but growing Old is.  Many times, people
  confuse the two, but the difference is a large one.  Growing up is a natural part of life, the
  changing that comes of experience…but growing Old…growing Old is another thing.

  When you grow Old, you lose your soul.  The youth, the rebellion, the hot blood and
  ambition and passion that fills your life withers and fades away.  You don’t see everything
  as funny any more.  You actually embrace the whims of society, you conform to the
  standards of others.  Why?  Because being young is hard work.

  That’s right: hard work.  Being young takes an effort…the will to rebel against anything
  and everything.  The stubbornness to know that you are Right about whatever it is you’re
  right about.  The ability to stand against the storms of life that rage about you, to stand
  against the ones who have grown Old and have become the Enemy.

  How could this have happened, though?  Your parents were, strange as it is to believe,
  young once.  They felt the rush of hormones through their brains and shouted out at the
  world in defiance!  How is it, then, that they became so…so Old?

  They surrendered to life.  They let it beat them.  They decided to embrace the flow of
  things instead of fighting them, because it’s so much easier that way.  Their rebellious
  spirits were crushed by the corporations that hired them.  They stopped laughing at
  everything, and tried to be serious.  They stopped watching cartoons.  In short, they gave
  up their souls.

  Not all of them, of course.  There are many who held onto their youth though their
  physical aging.  Robin Williams.  That one crazy uncle that everyone has.  Rodney
  Dangerfield.  Jimmy Buffett.  They kept their youth.  There are others, too, who have not
  surrendered.  People who work for the faceless corporations by day, smile and nod at the
  system as it does whatever it does, but rebel within their minds.  Their youthful souls still
  live on, and they scream in silent defiance into the night.  These are the blessed ones.
  These are the people who make life worth living for those around them, who know the
  humor of everything that is.  These are the people our parents warned us about.  These are
  the people who should be our role models.

  Keep your youth, no matter what.  Be strong, smile, fight the system where you can.  Do
  your best to throw a little chaos into people’s lives.  Be Young.  Don’t let your soul
  blacken and rot.  Don’t give yourself in to those who would make you change, make you
  conform.  If more people would remember their youth, then things would begin to change.
  Maybe not always for the better, but it would change, and youth thrives on change.  Let
  yourself get Old, and you strengthen the stagnation of our society, and threaten the youth
  of the young.