The Idealisms and Passions of Youth

1358 Words6 Pages
Am I qualified to discuss the idealism and passions of youth? I mean, I am a youth, but can I really do this when the only idealism and passions I know are those of youth? Maybe it isn’t youth that breeds strong emotions, but vice versa. It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the size of the fight in the dog. I’ll play this game though. Let’s imagine that my eighteen years have made me wise enough that I can look back at fourteen-year-old Niamh with an affectionate, condescending shake of the head. Fourteen-year-old Niamh loved a great many things with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and what little she hated, she hated with a venomous intensity. She loved Westlife. A pop band with a squeaky clean image and she believed everything they did and said as Gospel. Posters of them all over her bedroom walls, their Cheshire cat smiles and their happy-go-lucky music captivated her. She would daydream about meeting them and just talking, about music and films and television. She’d be so calm and witty that they’d think “Wow, she’s cool; she should have a free pass to all our concerts.” At first her favourite member was Kian Egan, who had a face like a kitten and blue twinkling eyes. But he soon bored her with his humility, nobody in a pop band had the right to be humble, they were global superstars after all and so she moved on to Nicky Byrne, the messer who made her laugh in every interview. She loved him because, to her knowledge, nobody else did. But his ever changing hairstyle and adventurous character started to wear a little thin. Then she fell for Shane Filan, the front man, whose voice mesmerised her no end, spending hours attempting to sound even remotely like him. That too passed. And suddenly – I was fifteen and I wasn’t that into them anymore. No longer heroes, they were just a band. This was new to me. Most jarring of all, I
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