Forever Young

"My face is the product of sporadic sunscreen and a lifetime of shitty choices: prepubescent cat fights, Players Light Regular and a thousand nights spent cramming for exams and pondering my existence. I am only 24 and I have small wrinkles forming on the sides of my eyes and mouth, and on my forehead.

Botox is the solution. Chemical peels, microdermabrasion and a Joan Rivers style pick-me-up may eventually be required. In the meantime, there are a multitude of cosmetics that plump up, fill in and camouflage. Ad if that doesn't work, I can bake my body into melonoma oblivion at the local Fabutan in an effort to look "healthy" and "vibrant." People will like me. Men will want to fuck me. Life will be wonderful.

Once I am wrinkle-free, my graduate degree will suddenly materialize on my wall, my boyfriend will no longer want to screw Megan Fox, and I will be the greatest woman that ever lived.

Yes, the botox, the self-induced melonoma and the obsessive, self-important desire to look good would surely impress thousands of women who fought for my right to be more than a mere reflection of beauty. I'm sure Emily Carr and Jane Addams aren't rolling in their graves everytime society glorifies Paris Hilton as anything more than toxic swill. I'm sure I'll be a better person if I have a frozen forehead.

Oh the O generation, how proressive you are."--Sheena Edmundson

It plagues men and women alike...the desire to remain forever young. PAAh. Good luck. I'm not saying you shouldn't take care of yourself, eat alright, exercise, protect your skin. I'm just proposing a new attitude towards age.

Instead of being so hung up on wrinkles, receding hairlines, a little skin flab, take pride in your years. I know it's easy to say when I'm only in my twenties, the age people strive to maintain many years after, but I hope to adopt my mother's philosophy as I age.

She is the most beautiful woman I know. She's 50 something, and looks it. She still strives to be healthy, eat right ect, however, she's incredibly comfortable with her wrinkles. I would go so far as to say that she's proud of them. She's said to me numerous times, "I've earned every one of these years." She never thought she'd live this long, and she views reaching her age as a huge accomplishment--which it most definitely is!!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should embrace who you are and where you're at in life. Stop picking yourself apart, and spending all your time and energy on a fleeting goal....that's just what the media wants you to do. Consume. Consume. Consume. Youth, however, is a state of mind. Stay forever young at heart and LIVE your life instead of wishing it were different.

I need to remind myself of this often.