The Perils of Callow Youth

I don’t know what has changed me more: growing up didn’t do much but becoming a parent sure did. And hearing about what goes on in the world around us on a daily basis is one shocker after another. This post may make me sound over the hill and preachy but it still stands because it does seem that many of us, women especially, still haven’t woken up to the fact that it’s a pretty gross world out there.

A couple of friends and I went to a club last night. The club was as most clubs are- darkish with strobe lights, lasers, LOUD music and lots of cocktails. One more instance of growing older was revealed to me last night, that I prefer my drinks to *not* have witty, funny names and not be too diluted with all and sundry ingredients. They should be a healthy splash of alcohol/ liquor, ice cubes and served in clean glass. But that’s another blog post for another day.

Our group was dressed differently from our usual everyday attire and we were getting silly amongst ourselves and saying harmless silly things amongst each other to elicit laughs. What I mean is that we weren’t hyper vigilant in our surroundings but neither did we take this break from status quo to go crazy.

There were plenty of “young” people there who had lesser inhibitions than we did. See one of the biggest disadvantages of being a youth is that you’re lacking in experience for a lot of things in life but you have bucketloads of confidence that whatever happens you’ll be able to see yourself through it. The reason I say it’s a disadvantage is because you can’t always be prepared for what you don’t know is out there.

The PYTs were dressed to what they clearly thought was their hippest best but I was disappointed to see that quite a few amongst them had overlooked a sense of safety and decorum to being fashionable or looking trendy. Case in point the young lady who get her date or at least the guy she was dancing with grab her ass on the dance floor in front of everyone and basically grope her very frequently in front of other guys who clearly were enjoying the show.

Or the other young lady who was in an outfit a few sizes too short and small for her and was sporting a very visible and large camel toe.We have all been there, wanting the freedom to go out and have fun, have a few drinks before we’re legally old enough to, or just barely old enough to imbibe, not wanting to think much about anything and just having F-U-N but with the kind of sticky situations going on all around us, isn’t it better to just dance your heart out, drink till you get a wee buzz and make sure the person you came with has more sense than acting like a wannabe pimp on the dance floor?

But this is age talking. Not callow youth who has some way to go before the fairly complicated life they lead about who likes whom, where do they hang out each weekend and discussing what’s the latest trendy thingamajig et al. I want them to have their fun and not feel pressured to grow up too quickly and sober down into 14 hour work days and mortgages all over the place. But still don’t leave your brains at home either. You’ll need it to let you know if you’re doing the right thing for yourself or not. Having fun intersecting with being irresponsible doesn’t always end well.

But back to the aged ones…we danced, we drank, we ate and we laughed. And I think for that was the funnest thing we could have done there. And we will be repeated it but I for one will not be doing it with a drink called Bunny&Clyde! Gimme a rum&cola any day!