To Be Young, Healthy and Beautiful

To Be Young, Healthy and Beautiful

A poem by Gary Cottle

Ah, to be young, healthy and beautiful.
To only have just begun your journey.
To have the support of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles.
To have homes and arms open to you where ever you go.
To have strangers smile at you with wistful gladness on learning you are 18, 19 or 20.
To have them wish you well without hesitation and offer to help you succeed if they can.
To know that you will never be in want of a date for long and that you will likely have to turn some away.
To believe you are going somewhere and that you will do good things, great things, things people will talk about.
To have the road ahead stretch out so far the end is almost unfathomable.
To be more concerned with the route than the destination, and to have insurmountable hope that your adventure will be a happy one.
To go back and have this all again without being afraid that you’re not good enough, that you’ll never measure up, that you don’t deserve the gift of being young.
To never have heard the putdowns.
To never have believed them.
To have had confidence.
To have been loved and nurtured not in spite of who you are, but because of it.
To have been told by the people who matter that you are on the right path.
To have had them not try to hold you back.
To have been allowed to make your way without shame, guilt or fear.
To have started out on that road knowing that you will be accepted.
To have been nascent with an unburdened heart.
To have been yourself from the start.