Good evening, I would like to thank everyone for attending. Occasions like this are not the way we envisioned us getting together but never-the-less we all are here, and here to pay our last respect to my Youth. As the saying goes, “father time is undefeated”, and after a 30-year battle this still holds true. We have gathered tonight to celebrate a death and look forward to life. As I prepared to speak tonight, I was reminded of all the things that made Youth special.

      The magic about Youth was the absence of time. Where our favorite shows lasted forever and didn’t have episodes or seasons, and playing outside was only interrupted by the street light…and to this day I have no idea what time street lights officially come on, but we never argued with the street light because we all knew that’s the “time” our moms told us to be in by. In our youth, we hated the term “in and out”. Back then it wasn’t a place to eat it meant if we came in would couldn’t go back out. Back when summers were endless, that was too much to handle. So, we fueled up by drinking water from the hose.

     Eventually, father time is a chaperone to us all. We notice it but we don’t pay attention until it hits us all at once. The autopsy for Youth reads “death by a thousand paper cuts.” Before you know, the friends you have begun to change, the grade you’re in begins to change, and all-the-while you begin to change. As Youth aged into awareness. An awareness of what clothes you have on, social status, and time. Father time gives Youth the talk about the birds and bees, the fine art of Netflix and Chill, jobs, race, and bills. By this time, we begin to notice how sick Youth actually is and the world around us points this out on social media every chance it gets. At 30, Youth is on life support and we hang on to it because we don’t want to let go.

     As we are all here acknowledging the death of Youth, we must now celebrate the life after Youth, which is Maturity. For those unfamiliar, if Youth is a great night out with your friends then Maturity is the same except done at a slower pace while wearing comfortable shoes. Youth was uncertain and excited. Maturity is sure and comfortable.

     Don’t be saddened by the things we lost with the death of Youth but look forward to appreciating those experiences in a new way. Instead of Netflix and Chill, it’s Hulu and Relationship. Instead of sex with strangers, it’s sex with…Well, it is still have sex with strangers but you can spend the night because they live by themselves. Instead of dates in noisy places, Maturity allows you to afford to eat at a place with ambiance.

     While maturity does provide its own set of challenges, you can appreciate those challenges because of the relationship we all had with Youth.

 

Thank you