Mintz+Wall+Four+Reflection

Americans romanticize youth. In my experience, as a youth, I have felt that yes, it is wonderful to be young and able with a lot of potential and my whole life ahead of me. But it's not easy being young, and I think that a lot of adults forget this. In John M. Ridland's short poem //Age Looking Back at Its Youth//, he mentions briefly that he didn't have much, but he moves on quickly and implies to the reader that he didn't care as a child about money. I suspect that this is untrue. Growing up in hard times is always hard. Living in poverty, or even living meagerly is not the kind of thing that a child ignores. Bob Dylan takes for granted that to be 'forever young' is the best thing that could happen to a person. //Super Sad True Love Story// also deals a lot with the subject of youth. Eunice is young, and therefore loved by both Lenny and Joshie. Joshie is old, but he hates it and does literally everything in his power (which is quite a lot) to regain his youth. Lenny, on the other hand, is getting old but doesn't really care, at least not by the end of the book. This is why Eunice thinks there is something wrong with him and eventually leaves him, and this is why Joshie stops caring about him. What is really interesting is that in //Super Sad//, it is only the Americans so obsessed with youth. An Italian sculptor says to Lenny at one point, "You can live to be a thousand, and it won't matter. Mediocrities like you //deserve// immortality." Youth is an uncomfortable, uneasy and sometimes brutal stage of life. In the 'formative years,' everything is transformative; every event has a profound impact, good or bad. I understand why it is so frequently made to seem pure and innocent, but it really is not.