Poirot once said,
To me, nowadays, anything young is beautiful.
from Peril at End House
Shortly after I moved to Rhode Island, I was driving to the grocery store, vaguely listening to an interview on NPR, when the interviewer asked the interviewee (whoever she was), “What would be your message to all the young girls out there?” Of course I don’t remember the exact wording of the answer, but I remember the gist. It was this: youth is beautiful. Girls worry about their weight and their skin and fitting in, and they let these worries blind them to the beauty that is inherent to their youth.
That’s not exactly a new idea, but it was the first time I’d ever heard it phrased in a way that meant anything to me personally. Perhaps it was because I was aware of my own increasing age and not feeling terribly happy about it. Maybe I needed someone to remind me to appreciate the youth that I still had.
Looking through a photo album recently, I was amazed to see that I was beautiful during my teen years. I didn’t think so when I was a teen, but now I can see the evidence before my eyes. I was reminded of that NPR interview, and I was disappointed that I still hadn’t learned to fully appreciate the present.
This is the wisdom I’ve tried to glean from these experiences:
No matter your age, you are younger now than you will be later. One day, you will look back upon yourself as you are now and think, “How young and beautiful I was!” But if you did not live your life as though you were young and beautiful, the revelation of your former beauty will be bittersweet. “Why,” you will ask yourself, “did I not appreciate what I had?” So don’t wait until you’re older. Keep that future perspective in mind and have your revelation today. Say “How young and beautiful I am!”