Some adults of this world are doing the youth a huge disservice by setting a bad example and glamorizing bad behavior while ignoring good behavior– that’s what I keep realizing.

It’s 12 : 00  PM on day 1679 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, pray,    read Ezekiel 38 , publish my Disability of the Day feature, publish my Kid of the Week feature, feed myself  for breakfast, learn one new thing –In 2013, National Geographic reported on a study in the journal Current Biology showing that African dung beetles were able to navigate using the Milky Way to orient themselves, the only animal species known to show this ability. –  read Poisonous Expectations – a poignant post about  society’s narrow definition of perfection –    Educate Generations campaign–$2 700 raised so far  .

Recently I came across the Instagram feed of an 86-year-old grandmother and I was shocked on the feed I saw pictures of this grandmother smoking, getting ready to binge drink and posing all but nude after seeing those pictures I didn’t wonder why the youth of today were the way they were I wondered why they wouldn’t be and so in effort to stop the madness I have taken it upon myself to point out to my young brothers and sisters what’s the imitation of cool and what’s really cool. Take a look:

Imitation of Cool vs. Really Cool

Imitation of cool:

• Smoking (Smoking may seem like a really cool thing to do but it’s really not it makes you smell, it stains your teeth, it’s addictive and it causes lung cancer and other diseases)
• Drinking (drinking may also seem really cool but it’s also really not excessive drinking over a long period of time causes liver damage and as for the short-term you’ll wake up with the mother of all hangovers in the morning)
• Drugs (you may feel the pressure to do drugs because you want your friends to think you’re cool but doing drugs is seriously not cool it damages every part of your body and destroys your life and any “friend” who pressures you to do drugs is no friend at all)
• Being promiscuous (your body is sacred not a playground for people who want to pass the time please value yourself and your body failure to do so may have consequences which you are not yet equipped to handle)
• Being a part of a criminal gang (you may feel cool walking around with a group of people who have guns but cross the wrong people and you’ll end up in jail or dead)

Really cool:

• Respecting your elders (I find this hard sometimes but it’s important that we respect our elders and listen when they try to guide us because they have more life experience than us and only want the best for us)
• Saying please and thank you (when you want someone to do something for you say please and when they do it say thank you that way they feel respected and appreciated)
• Helping people (when you encounter people in need of help offer to help them and if they accept help them in any way that you can)
• Complimenting people (whenever I remember after dinner I say to my mom the food was nice to which she often says you’re the only one who says that I can tell it means a lot to her making someone else feel good about themselves makes me feel so good)
• Reading (Reading is super cool you can travel to all corners of the world without paying for a plane ticket and you get to see life from other people’s points of view)