“Being young” has literally always been one of man’s greatest needs, whether in childhood or old age. For many people think that being young is only a question of age, and ignore the fact that someone can be a true young person regardless of how many years he or she has.
Indeed, “being young” is more a state of mind. A state of mind is the mentality a person possesses, the inner attitude that accompanies their daily actions. In other words, it’s the right mentality that determines who is a true young person. A true young person is defined by the way he or she says, sees and does things, and conceives of the world around him or her. The young person’s mentality inspires optimism and a desire to move forward! To be young is to have a perspective on life, to be spirited, to fight to defend one’s worth, to be curious. To be young is to have a sense of creativity and positivity in everything, to be different when you need to be, to have an original way of conceptualizing things. And to be young is to have the ability to say YES when all those who only follow say no, and to say NO when they say yes.
The true young person is the one who knows that opportunities are everywhere, and that it’s up to him or her to seek them out without ever discouraging until they are found. This must be his motive: “never stop until you get what you’re fighting for”.
It’s no secret that today there are more so-called young people than there are real young people, because the majority of young people let themselves be guided instead of guided, let themselves do instead of doing, let themselves be weakened instead of strengthened. We have a youth that no longer believes in education, and consequently no longer believes in intellectual value. Most of today’s youth don’t fight to defend their worth, and believe they’ll be valued just by being called “Dexter” or some such name. A youth without goals, who often say: “Ti ayisyen paka gen objèktif”, whereas a being without goals is like someone who exists and doesn’t want to live, but to exist. Young people who don’t give a damn about their future, unaware that to have an objective is to have hope for the future.
I’m writing this text to awaken the “youthful spirit” that sleeps within you, and to remind you that the value of a true young person lies not in his size or physiognomy, but in his intelligence. And to remind you that a true young person is not one who follows the path of others, but one who seeks to create his own. He’s the one who believes in intelligence and strives to be even more intelligent, because he knows that the world is looking for intelligent people, and they’re very rare.
You need to be reminded that to deviate from what we call the “Haitian reality”, you have to be real young people, i.e. young people who don’t rely on diplomas, report cards or other pieces of paper. But who know how to use their intellectual faculties and who can present themselves anywhere. Young people who want to reach the top and who aren’t afraid to face life, because they know there are more places at the top than those who want to get to the top.
It’s also worth noting that the true young person is one who sees his community as an equivalence class in math, where each element is a representative of the class, and since he’s part of his community, he must be a valid representative. It should also be pointed out that the true young person is the one who knows that his life is like the derivative of a function that we haven’t yet determined, and that all he has to do is integrate it to find it. He must remember that this derivative can be difficult to integrate, and that all he needs to do is master the methods of decomposition into simple elements, and it will be ultra-easy.
Know that your community needs you, and that you must be true young people, young people who inspire change.
I’ll end this text by saying this: “Change your mentality and you’ll be real young people, young people with a creative spirit who know that what’s important is not where they are, but the state of mind they’re in.