【范文】
Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; itis not a matter of pink cheeks, red lips and flexibleknees; it is a matter of will, a quality of imagination,a vigor of the emotion, it is the freshness of thedeep springs of life.
Youth means a dispositional control of courageover cowardice, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in aman of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We growold by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear,self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human beings’ heart the looking forward to wonder, theendless child-like appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center ofyour heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it is receiving messages ofbeauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from God, you are young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice ofpessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up to catchwaves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.