Sunset

Most people watch the sun set then get up and leave. These people miss the beauty the follows the sunset when the light of the sun is gone but the glow from it's passage fills the entire sky in a prism of colors finally fading to orange and red while the sea answers by reflecting the coming night in shades of indigo and violet.

Life is also like this. Children yearn to be grown up, want to celebrate every birthday, every advance towards adulthood but then don't realize the beauty of being an adult comes much much later.  Not at 18, not then, not even at 21 it's not about hitting a defining moment it's about letting that moment pass and seeing what unexpected consequences it brings. 

I see a lot of children around me who doubt the wisdom of time, who contemplate never seeing adulthood because they are not enjoying the passing of the daylight.  They don't see how quickly it is passing or how much beauty lies ahead, they only feel the pressure and the pain of the moment.  The stress from school, the conflict with family, the lack of true friends and in the moments of their pain they forget they are waiting for the sunset, waiting for the light to fade and the night to embrace them and comfort them.

My daughter went to a school event and ended up in the middle of a conversation about suicide attempts.  This is one of the reasons my daughter no long goes to school, not because she's ever expressed a desire to die but simply because the stress from school was making her life nothing but a nightmare.  The kids she left behind in class are rapidly failing, the smartass boy who now cuts himself just to feel, the transfer kid who made friends and was popular who now talks of death  or doesn't talk he writes poetry and cries, the queen bee who has eaten herself up three sizes and lives for the next party and oblivion, the jock who hurts himself and almost drove his bike off a cliff rather than face another day at school.

It's not that being a teenager is not hard enough, I know it is, I've been there. But 80 plus percent of the class should not be looking to die before they live.  We need to nurture our children and guide them, we need to take the pressure to succeed away.  They need to know that there is life after math class, that whether they pass or they fail life continues regardless.  I've had too many friends die unwilling to wait for the beauty and wonder that lies ahead after all light seems to have been lost.  Life does not end when the sun goes down for tomorrow is another day and we must be ready to enjoy the dawn.