My mom bought me a set of paints when I was a teenager. The first yield was a clumsy forest scene in which, despite its many problems, I saw some potential. If I could travel back in time to tell myself about the next fifteen years, I would explain that the outcome of that potential will continue to elude me and my peers. Sadly, we’ll have to watch beautiful minds fade from drugs and the crushing weight of societal pressures, and, worse, transform into pale pedantic shadows of their formerly vigorous selves. We must be on the wrong path! I’m sure that stupid kid would say he understands. But he can’t.

At that point, we would step into a time machine and slide down the entire history of the human race. I would say that the point of all this is for us to be slightly more optimistic. Our lives continue to get more interesting and our post-teens are way better than our teens. I still love painting and my friends are the best. You know what? Just forget this happened.