STATE OF THE YOUTH

We are young, and we want to be right.
We want to drink, dance, fuck and fight,

But although we’re old enough to ask questions
We’re too young to know answers.
And that’s alright.

It’s alright because in not knowing lies the promise of discovery.

We are the only part of this world that hasn’t been mapped out, you can’t find us in textbooks.
So we have to be the Christopher Columbus of our own bodies.
We set sail to our own minds, and on the way there
We’ll crash and burn a hundred times, without anyone to tell us if we’ll ever really arrive.
But that’s alright.

Because while we are all apart, we are not alone.
Our art connects us
It spreads like a wildfire,
Red and blue flames filled with voices, words, images.
And like the fire, art needs space to breathe.
It needs air.

We are that air.
We are that air in the sighs we let go when we think we’re finished
And when we find out we’re really not
We are that air in the heaving of accordions, in the chatter of trumpets, in the vibration of a guitar string.

Yesterday, someone said that this youth is okay.
We’re not okay.

We’re good.
Damn good, in fact, even if nobody realizes it yet.

This world is sponsored by us.
Even if we’re arrogant, unhealthy and downright vicious.
We won’t find a way, we’ll make one.
Leaving the soles of our shoes deep in the ground.
We’ll make a way, a swerving line paved by getting lost.
Horribly lost, not knowing where to go and too proud to ask for directions.
We’ll reach our goals by ourselves, late and lost because our own ideas are always better than advice.

And that’s alright.
Because while we are young, and we want to be right.
I’m fine with being wrong sometimes.

Joeri Heegstra

 

State of the Youth van Joeri Heegstra is in licentie gegeven volgens een Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-NietCommercieel-GeenAfgeleideWerken 3.0 Unported licentie.
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