This Is Our Youth

One play. Three actors. A thousand different stories.

Photo Courtesy of Del Rey Players

This is our youth.

We hide our insecurities under masks of false strength, destroying everything in our paths to appear invincible ourselves. We bury our past in an effort to move on to the future, trying to love when we have lost so much. We disguise our true feelings with a facade of stoicism, afraid to show emotion because it is so often perceived as weakness.

Our lives force us into situations where we must pick the people who are important to us. On the surface, it seems easy, but there is a catch. You cannot pick everyone, and the people you want in your life also have to choose you in return. The process leads to an ebb and flow of friendships and relationships that is particularly painful; the presence of new friends always follows the absence of old ones, but it never becomes easier to let the old friends go.

The highs and lows of life are magnified in our youth. Each event can seem like a miracle or a catastrophe. The more we invest into our emotions, the more we feel, and the harder the highs and lows become. We walk on paths that are crooked and narrow, and it appears as if the rocks will trip us with every step we take. Some days, we have to go backward before we can move forward, and on other days, we only move a few inches, or none at all.

But all this turbulence is better than a flat existence of monotony. We help each other abandon our masks and our facades of strength, and we hold each other as we cry about the lows of life. The paths we traverse are long and arduous, but we do not walk alone. We walk together, celebrating our moments of fulfillment and happiness, our highs along the path of life.

This is our youth.

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This post is inspired by the Del Rey Players' production of This Is Our Youth and touches on the themes of the play as well as a conversation I had with my friends after we watched the show. Never have I been so moved by a cast of actors as I was on Friday night. 

Catch the Del Rey Players' production of This Is Our Youth until April 9th. Click here for more information.