The Young Issue

Volume 10 Issue 1, Summer 2010

In your hands you hold the summer issue of Blueprint Magazine. Blueprint is a creative endeavour by the students of Wilfrid Laurier University and members of the greater community. To the incoming students who have received this issue in the mail, I hope you enjoy this slice of our campus’ culture, and use Blueprint as a tool to orient yourself to the few months of pre-university life you have left.

Upon reviewing the submissions contributed for this issue, I found that most had a tendency towards waxing nostalgic. Many dealt with the telling of childhood stories, or recollections of a simpler time. It seems that among the memories we hold to ourselves, we cling most steadfastly to those of our youth. The fleeting nature of our childhood makes these memories all the more valuable. Youth is, indeed, a precious commodity.

These interpretations of youth are largely dependent, however, on exactly how far one is looking back. Students are faced with the responsibilities and planning expected of adults, but with a safety net of immaturity and carefree idealism that can act as a fall back. Adults face a full onslaught of obligation and duties, while the elderly are both revered as wise and derided as useless and ineffectual. Esteem varies based on one’s age, but in our youth, we are blessed to be unaware of these external perceptions.

To be young is to be innocent and untroubled by the ills of our world. But youth is also a time of ignorance, where growth is a necessity for social and physical development. One must be aware if their memories of youth root them in the midst of an uncertain future, or force them to be bound to an idealized past.

- Morgan Alan, Editor-in-Chief