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I am old now, and I made mistakes in judgement in my youth, for various reasons that weren’t my fault. Thankfully, my past led to the person I am today, with successful children and no brushes with the law.
We learn by our mistakes. If I could go back and change things, I would, but that is not the way life works.
Like, my conscious did not know better, yes, but that was only because my subconscious was making sure that little of the things that were in it would seep into my conscious. Then again, it's true that I didn't know better in one aspect: I didn't know that I didn't have to be fake to be happy, that's the reason I made most of my mistakes, not inherent stupidity.
I only made many of my mistakes not because I was especially stupid, but because I thought it was necessary to be fake in order to be happy and not hurt others.
Copying answers from the back of the book on an algebra assignment in 9th grade?
Shooting a man in Reno, just to watch him die?
Context matters.
Exactly my thoughts. Yesterday I was reading a story on Facebook (posted via George Takei's page), about a sorority girl who was filmed making racist comments - using the "n-word," among other things. Someone in the comment section said "We were all young and stupid once; who didn't do something like this in their past?" First of all, she was a legally-adult college student, not a small child. Second of all, even when I was in elementary school, I never went off on racist rants or used offensive slurs. If you're raised properly, that sort of behavior is NEVER accepted, and your vocabulary shouldn't even include those words. So being young is not an excuse (or explanation) in that situation, and clearly she wasn't taught why it isn't okay.
That being said, there is actually a neurological component to the "young and stupid" argument. According to one article I just pulled up: "The prefrontal cortex, which handles reasoning, grows during the pre-teen years. But it is pruned back during adolescence, increasing impulsive, risk-taking behavior—and susceptibility to addiction." So we ARE more likely to take risks at that age (pre-20ish), without considering the consequences as most adults would. That's probably why I didn't think smoking was a big deal at 15, and figured I'd just quit before it affected my health. Today @ age 41 I would know better, but unfortunately the addiction took hold before I reached that stage of development.
I only made many of my mistakes not because I was especially stupid, but because I thought it was necessary to be fake in order to be happy and not hurt others.
So yeah, in my case, the real and sane me was there the entire time, I just thought I had to not only fake dumbness, but also delude myself I was actually like that.
Some young adults will try to excuse poor choices in their behavior to, "I was young and dumb."
Is that a valid excuse? Or is it a smoke screen?
yeah, what is wrong with that excuse? I did dumb stuff I would not ever do again. Because I was young, dumb, and didn't care about consequences.
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