As a child, part of the freedom of youth is not over thinking things. Crushes are crushes, books are truth, adults are right.
As I've gotten older (not yet old), my brain works things over and over - putting time and energy into the skills of analysis that I've picked up throughout my education. How do we solve the inequalities in the world? Why does an author choose this language over that? What was my senator thinking when he or she voted that way?
One of my classes this semester was comprised of a group of adults (some still traditional college students, most of us had years between high school and this course - "life experience") given the task of reading and responding to Young Adult literature. We had discussions about things from the ease and prevalence of meth addiction to the appropriateness of adolescent novels covering the topic of rape. What we didn't hear was simple "I liked it" or "I hated it." Every opinion was based on exhaustive analysis of whether or not a book had a right to exist in the hands of youth.
I'm not saying blind acceptance is preferred - absolutely not. Higher level thought is vital to our country's discourse because every decision we make affects up to 7 billion people globally.
I'm just saying it is TIRING!
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