What is youth?
Maybe it's the feeling of the sun hitting your skin; warm, seeping and deepening its rays into the little crevices on your body. That feeling that is nice at first - and you relish this warmth - but it soon becomes overwhelming, and you think about how much you hate the sun (but you just forgot the feeling of heat after so many days in the rain). Maybe it's that feeling of waking up in the morning; eyes glued shut with those gross little eye boogers dug into the edges of your tear duct, and your alarm blaring while the birds call out. You then silently swear at those birds and your stupid alarm, and groggily wipe your eyes as you dread the day ahead of you. It's the sound of loud shouts and cries, uncontrollable laughter and slapping on the table. It's the way that the morning dew seems to sit so nicely atop the grass that day, and the other teenagers waiting by your bus stop, staring silently at the road. Maybe it's even the way the moon looks on that night that you decide to sneak out of your house, climbing out the window and sitting on the damp bench in the back garden at 2:30 am. It's the feeling of wishing so fervently to grow up, and to let go of everything, to finally be, but still basking in the sunlight of the present. The sunlight overpowers, but once the sky darkens, you will realise how cold it is. Perhaps youth is the realization that growing up is the worst thing that could ever happen to you.
Youth is like a butterfly; it sits so beautifully in your palm, and you don't realise how amazing it was until it flies, leaving you. Leaving you, and the feeling of it sitting on your skin is all you can remember. You'll always crave that feeling.
by Anastasija Stradniece