I was sitting in a coffee shop drinking tea a few days ago. A couple tables away, some younger folks (probably high school-aged) were talking. Overhearing some of their banter reminded me of my own youth, specifically of the way I, and some of my acquaintances, sometimes pretended to be aloof. If you asked us, we wouldn’t say it made us cool, but we were hoping to come off that way.

In my “old age” it’s become apparent to me that we didn’t come off as anything but ignorant most of the time, something I’ve come to understand by observing the young people who are now in the shoes I wore twenty years ago. But knowing how I was at their age, I try not to begrudge them their naiveté .

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