For the first years of your life you rely on grown-ups, who know
all that happens or does not happen in the world, what you must
do and when and how you must do it.
Then youth comes.
Everything in the world turns out to be inconstant and changing,
and not always reasonable. You begin to notice that grown-ups
are not as reliable as all that; they often make mistakes, and
hesitate, and disagree with one another, sometimes even contradict
themselves, and do not know nearly all there is to know.
Now you often have to do things on your own initiative and at your
own risk. Roads divide, and at each cross-roads you are faced with
the difficult problem of choosing your own path. You have already
gathered a certain experience of life, and are impatient and hungry
for more.
Samuel Marshak
