YOUTH ATTITUDE RE- DIRECTION

YOUTH ATTITUDE RE- DIRECTION

Youth as a phase of existence has become a basically misunderstood phenomenon by all forms of constituted authority. Governments, Societies, Families, Organizations are continually seeking for understanding on how best to convert this phase of seemingly excessive drive and energy to advantages for the betterment of all. It is simply defined as the earlier part of life but also a phase of unimaginable strength yet directional challenges. It is phase of “a thin line” between advantages and disadvantages, wrongs and rights, successes and failures and “fears” known and unknown. These misunderstandings and misinterpretations are not farfetched; Youths are continually associated with every embarrassing issue bedeviling the happiness of man around the globe; Violence in all its forms, Crime in all its faces, deviations from all norms and forms, to mention the least. The usual suspects whenever a hasty explanation is required as per why youths are so zealously energetic to the detriment of an ideal society range from extreme addictions which perhaps leads to unpredictable vice and social disorders; Peer group indulgence which seem to portend extremities as a fad; Lack of vision which erroneously secludes people of the group from generally seeing themselves as responsible and the Lure of alien culture which tends to introduce changes at an alarmingly inconveniencing rate. Of a fact, the negativity is unending such that to a major degree, the subject of reference is seen as more pain than gain. This shouldn’t be. There are still a lot of positive attributes pertaining to youth, while I dare say at this point that ‘the intent of the focus breeds the quality of conclusion’. If we prefer to see things from a helpless point of view, we will definitely find a basis for our state of mind.

The only way out of this rhapsody of calamities as expressed so far, is the foundation for the topic on the front burner of this write up. Should we allow able bodied talented individuals to be wished away as trouble?

Youths are the only ones who can change this whole perception and spate of occurrences. This can be achieved by redirecting their attitude and trust me, it is as simple as stated. The first step is to embark on self examination in order to know which parts of the blame to accept and which to absolve themselves of. Many a time, youths take blame for failures of Leadership or inadequacies of a System. A major reason for such occurrences emanates from a non existence of clearly organized youth forums or organized points of articulation.  There must be a tirelessly conscious effort to identify the role and place of youths in the scheme of events; be it contributions to sectors of the economy or nation building. This is very necessary because, a society with an ill directed youth force will only breed a calamitous future. Ill fated is a better word to describe such a people or society.

As youths, we should dust our history books and go back down the memory lane of every topic or issue that currently rules the world today. We will rediscover that ‘some of the heroes we pay lip service to; knowing them by names and not their deeds, actually left tremendous marks in the sands of time in this same early stage of life we currently have the privilege of occupying’. They had the same opportunities and challenges today’s youths currently face but they not only adapted but changed the course of history indelibly. To examine this claim more carefully, we shall try to examine achievements that could be reasonably called the greatest ever, and see how many of those were made by youths.

The first telescopes were made by men in their late 20s or 30s, and a greatly improved design was developed by Galileo when he was 45. In 1956, a Nobel Prize was awarded to Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain, following their successful demonstration of a transistor in 1947; at that time, they were aged 39, 37 and 45 respectively. In 1779, at age 29, Abraham Darby III completed the world's first cast-iron bridge; often cited as the start of the Industrial Revolution. Many people contributed to the development of the incandescent light bulb; Edison, the most well-known, was about 33 when he made his major contributions. In the invention of the Airplane, Orville Wright, the younger of the two famous brothers, was 32 when they first achieved flight. The Constitution of the United States was written by numerous people, its "father", James Madison, was in his mid thirties. William Shakespeare (started writing career after age 25). Marco Polo's journey to China (was 17 in his earliest journey, made with his father and uncle, so this should count as an example). The Telephone is generally credited to Alexander Graham Bell, who was 28 at the time. Henry II’s contributions to English law came after he became king at age 21.

The New Testament of the holy bible was written by various authors. St. Paul, a major one, was probably in his early 30's when he was converted on the road to Damascus; all his contributions followed. In the holy Koran, Mohammad allegedly saw his first visions at 40. Jesus of Nazareth, undoubtedly the greatest individual to have existed on earth, started his ministry at the age of 30. The list is unending; the few mentioned were just to buttress the fact that youthful minds have achieved marvelous feats.

Conclusively, all those mentioned could do so much because; they had a strong attitude towards excellence. Your attitude remains your flight ticket to a world of unimaginable possibilities and the time redirect same is now. Warmest regards.

 ---------- Greg Ejovwokeoghene Agbavwe (Afrowest NG)