There are much things to hate in this life. But there are also much things to like and love. Growing older has a way of teaching things like that.
With age comes wisdom, as the cliche goes. And that is true. Wisdom is but the admission of how little you really know, according to Socrates, if I didn't get it wrong.
It's nice to be young since you can be a know-it-all and be forgiven for it. But after wading through all the years of crap that life chose to give you, you'd get to say at the end that "all is good." Though it would be wrong to say that it is true, that everything is "good, " but at least you get to appreciate the irony behind it. Good or bad, that is part of getting through this life. But in general, life is good, the level depending on how you make of it. The cliche "life's little pleasures" holds a very important truth. It seems all we really have are life's little pleasures. It would be a great loss if we fail to see and appreciate them.
But even so, I love the anger of youth. This anger is from the betrayal of life and ideals. I love youth and its anger. It's because the youth carry such great hopes and dreams that they get to hurt so badly, which makes them pretty angry. That's the reason why I think young people tend to rebel and do crazy things. It's hard to lose the ground beneath your feet then get back your balance in a short matter of time. Because of this, young people tend to stick to their ideals and close out any other viewpoints. That is irrational, but charming nonetheless.
With a bit of time and experience, a young person would get to learn how really horrible this world is. It's almost incomprehensible. All the hate that the young person stores in his or her heart would grow pale in the reality of reality. This, naturally, causes despair. But even so, despair is good. Despair tells you that you're still alive. Despair tells you that there is hope. Even if that hope is something fabricated and artificial, hope is the beginning of all. That, and irony. Though Albert Camus says there should be no hope, I don't think that is possible. There truly is no hope in an objectively meaningful existence, but hope is born because of it. Maybe the term is not hope, but possibility. I don't know, but hope opens the doors for possibilities for me. At least Camus taught me the necessity of irony.
With this opening of possibilities, you get to realize the infinite possibilities of human existence. You get to learn tolerance. You get to realize that the viewpoint you would die for, other people think nothing of. You get to realize that the viewpoints you considered as idiocy, other people would die for. It becomes an interesting situation. Of course, "dying" is a stretch, but you would get to realize that there are other points of view that are being held as dearly as you hold your own.
Thus, you learn to be addle-minded as you grow older. Rather, you learn to look at things with more patience and tolerance. But most of all, you get to realize that your viewpoint is just one of many. You learn that no one needs to be right, and no one needs to be wrong. Although, there are times when you need to make a stand. But in most cases, you're not in the middle of starting a war. In most cases, you realize that talking and communicating is more important--being heard and being listened to. But even after all that, you still stick to your guns, but sans the hate and anger. In some cases, you even call a truce.
But as you grow older, the more you tend to see how young you really are. Not in the sense that you can still down a case of beer and feel like nothing afterward (I miss those days), but more of realizing there's still a lot to learn. That even after decades, this life and your fellow humans still have a lot of crappy things have to teach you. That after all that happened, you would still contend with the fact that you're still as green as you can be.
And this leads me to another thing: keep moving. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep growing old. Keep learning. Then let life takes it's course, for better or worse. Or, you can end it yourself; it's your choice. But if you did, you won't get to enjoy the bitter-sweet experience of getting old.
