When people grow old, they begin to treasure memories. They treasure the pale flower petal that they pressed against the page of a journal years ago. They treasure the smiles they wore in the pictures arranged within a leather-bound album. They treasure things collected and saved up in small cardboard boxes. They treasure the songs that are so special because only they could remember the way it sounded. At some point in our lives, we stop looking forward and start looking back because we feel like we have reached our final destination, and now, the only thing left to do is to think about the path taken to arrive here
For a young person, this point seems distant and unreal. To a young person, the world is much too big for them to be able to see all of it before time runs out. For a young person, the world is one big mystery, and their choices unlock a different door every time. Wading through this giant mystery, trying to find yourself, trying to be relevant, all of this takes a toll on you. Unknowingly, we are giving up a very important part of us throughout our journey. Do we want to grow old and look down the path we took and see the pieces of ourselves that we lost? Do we want a life that is centred solely around the memories of our youth, a life that grows bleaker with age?
Recently, I watched a feathery white dandelion seed floating over a sea of people who were rushing through the street to find their way somewhere. It swerved and dodged many dangers before it landed on the pavement. As I watched the dandelion seed vanish under the feet of people, my heart began to sink. No one had caught the dandelion and blown on it to make a wish. In fact, no one had even noticed its existence. Knowing to blow on a dandelion is a very small and seemingly insignificant piece of knowledge that we all have buried somewhere deep within us. We all remember blowing a dandelion into the blue sky, knowing that somehow, your wish would come true. This is not just a strange, shared memory. It is a symbol of the irrational, unconditional hope that we carried as children. This hope made us see the world in a beautiful way, and this hope may be the reason why children act with such kindness and peace. Why do we forget to blow on dandelions when we grow older?
When we grow older, we begin to see through the magic in the world and we lose the childlikeness that made life so interesting. Maybe the reason we love to ponder on our childhood memories was not because of the things that we experienced but rather the way in which we experienced it. So, what is this part that we lose unknowingly? It is our youth. We tend to believe that losing your youth is the same thing as growing older. However, this is not true. As we grow, we can choose to continue seeing the magic in our world. We gain the privilege of happiness with this type of perspective.
Perhaps, if we teach ourselves to live like a child; to live with optimism, and to take our youth with us when we age, we just might find the meaning of our mysterious life within the centre of a dandelion seed.
Renika Anand is currently a student at Marian Academy.
