A Glimpse of Youth

What is the world coming to? I am not sure. What is life? I do not know. Why? I could not tell you. “Uh-oh! Wha-happen?” You turned your toy off, silly. “Turn on!” What do we say? “Pease.” And? “And.” Thank you. “Tank-oo!” You’re welcome. “I welcome!”

Life is so much simpler when you’re young. Ignorance is bliss, or so they tell me. I used to think that the less you knew about something, the easier it would be for you to forget about it. Ever since the birth of my nephew though, I think I am finally understanding that phrase. Ignorance is not about misunderstanding, it is the genuine happiness with everything, with no thought of the consequences. My nephew laughs whenever you laugh, and he yells whenever you yell. He does not understand why we yell some of the times, and laugh others, but he follows along almost as if playing some big game.

Ignorance is bliss, or so they tell me.

When he was first born my family read to him every day, and even now he will chose the biggest book and bring it over to whoever is closest, insisting that they read everything he points to. Sometimes he even “reads” by himself, by pointing to the words and pictures he knows and saying what they are, what sounds they make, even the motions related to them. Just the other day he was reading about elephants and he would whisper elephant, tilt his head back, put his hand in the air and trumpet.

Whenever my nephew finds something new to him he instantly feels the need to touch and taste it. Almost everything he gets ahold of turns out to be a new learning experience for him.  He learns so fast that sometimes I find myself wondering how he even picked up said skill. It only takes about three repetitions of a skill for him to master it, well, as best he can at his age. It makes one wonder what makes us shy away from being so eager to learn new things.

Do we stop wanting to learn as a sign of rebellion toward our parents, or is it because we simply think we know everything? My nephew is only two and he is already taking his toys back shouting “No, baby do!” as if he knows everything to know about his toy. Even though he is stubborn sometimes, he will usually return the toy if you make your proposal intriguing enough. Maybe that is what we need; for learning to be interesting and exciting to us. Maybe we just need to be more like my nephew, to see the world as a giant toy, and learn about it through excited curiosity. We should try everything that we want to, and learn to share our ideas with others. My nephew is a role model for me, and he is teaching me to love learning again. I think we all need that fresh pair of eyes to show us a glimpse of youth.