They sit right next to Peter Pan.

Today, a friend of mines and I got into a heated debate over the fact that he does not wish to grow up and take responsible for his life and do something about it. The background to the storyline is for the past two weeks leading up to his birthday he has been incredibly mopey and very ill-mannered but I was unable to figure out the exact reason as to why he was that way until today the day of his nineteenth birthday. Nevertheless, he raises the question that he wishes that he was in Never Never Land with Peter Pan because he does not want to grow old and that he wishes that he was young and have nothing but naivety because in his mind "ignorance is bliss." First of all there is nothing wrong whatsoever about aging, the American culture puts such a negative spin on the issue of growing old that it's denizens dislike the thought and will try to prolong aging as much as possible through methods such as Botox, older women with breast implants, etc. In other countries those who are older than the average age of the current population are normally held in such a high regard because of their age and maturity level they are also loved for their wisdom. Whereas in American, we rather put our old people in a home as soon as possible regardless if they are able-bodied and of sound mind. Old people are viewed as mental slow, physically slow, very forgetful and/or crippled. However, most of these problems derived not really from the fact that they are getting old but from the fact that we as Americans do not really take care of ourselves when compared to that of other countries so with that poor health it then becomes issues for us when we age but that is another story in its entirety. Getting off the subject of the negative spin, he wishes to go to Never Never Land because he does not want to take responsibility for anything that happens in his life. Which is another problem that occurs all to often in today's society. He is nineteen, with no job, no girlfriend, took basic classes in high school, did sports only because his younger sister is the athletic one(and current has one of the highest grade point averages in her class), did not go to college, did not go to a technical college, did not go into the military (his father is a Marine), does not have a car, does not have a license nor a permit, lives with his parents(who want him out the house.) Somewhere along the way you have to understand that you have to stop sucking on the baby bottle and step up to become somebody worth something or at least start to make an effort to change your life in some fashion. Like I said earlier this happens way to often in today's society, "Working is so hard, so I am going to apply for Welfare or have children so the government will take care of me." Seriously, I understand that there are legit people on Welfare however for every legit person on Welfare there exist four to five who should not be there. I was so glad when they put a limit on Welfare(once again another topic.) The reason, I go to Furman University is because I understand that in order to become a doctor and help people, I have to take responsibility, it is one thing fold but to step away from the table altogether is something totally different. Lastly, I as I try to hurry up and round of this rant he stated that "ignorance is bliss" is such a ridiculous statement because it ignorance is not bliss, it is dangerous. Two countries go to war because they believe that the another country is ignorant so they must be wipe from the face of the planet. Innocent women, children and men are dead because one country calls the other one ignorant but in all actuality they are both ignorant because diplomacy should be used. So can you tell the survivors of the war that ignorance is bliss? An ignorant man(or women) goes out and rapes little boys and girls at the local middle and elementary school and you honest can sit there and tell them that that ignorance is bliss? Timothy McVeigh blows up a federal building that results in twenty people confirmed dead, six of those dead included children, and with over a hundred more injured. It is okay because ignorance is bliss, your son, daughter, wife, husband, mother, father and grandparents are dead because ignorance is bliss. Are you really willing to tell those people that? My friend, please start taking responsibility for you life and do something with it. You know who you are.