Is youth really the best time of one's life?
Adult life is full of ups and downs, with office politics and people who are difficult to handle. Adults deal with such situations on every other working day, with weekends for rest. According to the United Nations, youths are persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. During this time, youths are not faced by the immense stress of adult life. Does this mean that youth is the best time of one’s life? I feel otherwise.
Firstly, as youths, we face our own forms of stress. There are mainly two sources of this stress. One is from education and the other is from other compulsory activities. The stress caused by education is mainly due to competitiveness in the education system. We compete with one another to achieve a better grade so as to acquire good academic achievements which are a stepping stone to a successful job. Everyone wants these achievements, but only a limited number of people can acquire them. Youths thus study very hard to get these achievements. When one youth studies till ten at night, another then studies till eleven, hoping to stand a higher chance of achieving a better grade. As youths grow older, there is more complex content for them to learn. It just gets tougher, and the amount of stress increases. On top of this, there are activities which youths have to attend. Some are Community Involvement Programme and Co-Curriculum Activities which are made compulsory by the government. Such activities usually take up a lot of time, and tires each individual out. Participating in activities like these would help a lot when one wants to apply for a scholarship as there would be one or two takeaways from every event participated. However, these activities actually add on to the stress youths face as the time spent on them could perhaps be better spent on studying or doing something that they enjoy.
Secondly, youths have huge responsibilities which cannot be taken lightly. They have school projects to complete, important events that must be attended and leadership roles. A youth has to juggle between studying and these responsibilities and must find a balance between the two. Sometimes it is difficult to find this balance as they may have to forsake one for another. Also the timings of the events may clash, and youths have to decide to attend the more important one. For example, there is a project meeting on a Tuesday and there would also be trainings for a basketball competition on that same day at the same time. The youth must then choose between going for the project meeting or attending the basketball training. Youths thus have to prioritise. Sometimes it is difficult to do so as both events are equally as important. Missing the project meeting means that the project may not be completed on time and the student may end up getting scolded by the teacher. At the same time, missing the basketball training equally entails the student getting scolded by his coach and perhaps even taken out from the main team. As much as the student wants to be responsible, he must forsake one event for the sake of the other.
On the contrary, some may argue that youths have fewer worries compared to adults. Adults face office politics every day, with some backstabbing and unreasonable demands from their bosses. All youths have to do is to ensure that they attain a reasonable grade for their exams and attend activities which are of a higher priority, without the need to deal with backstabbing and unreasonable demands. Most youths also do not have to worry about having a roof over their heads and the constant worry of being fired.
I disagree that youth is the best time of one’s life because they face their own form of stress from education and heavy responsibilities. However I do acknowledge that youths have fewer worries compared to adults. Youth may not be the best time of one’s life but it is definitely better than adulthood.
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