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No matter how much we indulge into pleasures, the thirst for satisfaction will still be expanse. This is so partly because the kind of quencher we use is not the right one. The other reason is that situations and conditions causing the thirst are unlikely to change. First, it is the anxiety then the failure, then frustrations and more frustrations. To avoid a breakdown, the youth turn to problem procrastinators for help: partying, drinking and even hard drugs. Statistics have it that more than 50% of youths between 18-25 are in the practice of using drugs to forget their tribulations. We’re not talking about peer pressure alone here; it is those who are seriously trying to escape reality. Those who are later engulfed by depression and in a desperate attempt to ‘defeat life’, they execute themselves by hanging or rat poison. Now the big question is who is responsible. The youth by the decision they make or the adults by the examples they leave?

Hey, let’s stop that blame game for a moment. Before you poke that pointing finger, watch how many are pointing at you. Now in a sober frame of mind, deceiving me that I have your attention, let’s share the blame. Such attitudes displayed by the youth may annoy a lot adults who feel that today’s teenagers are ‘spoiled’, receive too may material benefits and not enough discipline. The adults turn to the youth and say “grow up, quit acting like a cry baby, move from your dream world and start acting like an adult” Yet, ironically, these adults help create this attitudes by thrusting maturity on their children, supplying them with the paraphernalia of adulthood: dress, money, alcohol and other drugs.

Young people on the other hand feel active and hungry for adventure. They want gyms, sport clubs and even dance halls. Anything short of that is passed by time and boring. One recently commented, “I’d rather drop dead than sing in the choir!”

Thus when such ‘quality facilities lack in which case they do, the youths are left with one thing on their minds, ‘nothing to do’. In a bid to ‘kill’ or ‘rush’ time such vices are unavoidable.

Paradoxically, while the youth is capable of atrocious acts, he also has a sense of moral indignation in this information age.
We read and hear about the white-collar criminals a.k.a. politicians, commercial sex workers and all the rot in the society. The youth may end up concluding, “if that is the adult world, which is better, mine or theirs?” Most will

simply throw up their hands and reject adult goals and values in general.

Pressure also presses from parents who want their teenagers to achieve certain goals. The truth is, parental ambition often outruns the youths ability and most aren’t well equipped to meet such ambitions. In desperation, one may start cheating and be stressed up. There is a guy who since his childhood, wanted to be a cop, but his parents wouldn’t take that. Therefore, he worked against the odds to be what his parents wanted. So, one day he went to his folks, “mom, dad, I’ve graduated as a doctor as per your wishes, can I now go to Kiganjo and be a cop as per my wish?”

Such cleavage between parents and teens usually widens, then the teens consider themselves as ‘us’ and the parents as “them”. Rightly or wrongly, most teens feel threatened by the world created by ‘them’ and they’ll try everything to overcome this. They form a language that only ‘us’ can understand. They then move to drugs to relieve the stress caused by ‘them’ and even steal to be ‘independent’ from ‘them’.
Hard-hitting critics assume that such barrier is only good for hardening one into a ‘man’ in readiness for the hard school of life.
Warm hugging admirers often mistake the drift for toughness which when roughly translated into slang, means ‘kuchanuka’. Well, whatever the perception, both critics and admirers agree on the conclusion, there’s a problem somewhere. I am not a believer of proverbs but for the sake of stressing, I might quote one that says, ‘ if you’re not part of the solution then you’re the problem.

By now, all the fingers have been pointed accusingly at the youth. It’s okay, but first let everyone do his part. Let the parents recognize the relative maturity of their teens and discuss their ideas and values, however starting at an adult level. If anyone isn’t gifted in a certain area, is it sensible to goad him? Finally, a wakeup call to all the youth, ‘ get out of those cocoons of “boredom” and discover that there’s really much more to do. The world is out there, go use it!”