What is the world coming to: Youngsters binging

This is the second entry in the occasional series of serious topics.  The intention of these topics is not to educate people on things happening around us...I am not so naive to presume that nobody knows of these things unless I tell them.  I just wish to share my disapproval of these matters and release some steam...and maybe find a kindred spirit who agrees with me.

I have had a very peculiar education.  I spent almost 9 years in a Catholic Seminary in preparation to become a catholic priest.  We were a community of about 200 people, all there with the same goal and intention.  We used to live in the seminary and go home only twice a year.  We would work together, pray together, eat together, and live on the same campus.  It is but obvious that all of us were quite different from the youngsters that lived and existed outside our campus.  Our rules were strict and our training was very focused.  Everyone was constantly being evaluated and anyone who lacked the motivation was sent home immediately.  As a result, almost everyone on campus was a very decent person with hardly any vices that society might frown upon.

Due to personal reasons, I left the seminary and stopped my training.  I came to Bangalore, and started working and studying.  I was 'out in the world' for the first time in 9 years...I was no longer bound by the rules and restrictions of the seminary.  Hence everything outside seemed different as well.

I was generally the older one for the courses I joined.  Students around me were more or less 3-5 years younger than me.  This was good as I could keep my distance without being considered to be a weirdo who doesn't like interacting with others.  And being slightly away from the group also helped me to observe from a distance the life that was happening around me.  Trust me: I was not prepared for what was in store for me.

True, all youngsters are not seminary trained.  And I was well aware of that.  But I did not expect things to be that different.  For example, I always knew youngsters drank.  But the kind of drinking I have seen hostel students do is way beyond what I would ever have expected.  I grew up seeing grown-ups drink; in fact plenty of it.  However, I never expected kids in their late teens or early twenties to out drink grown-ups!  

And drinking is just one aspect.  These kids drink like there is no tomorrow, chain-smoke as if their lungs depended on the smoke, experiment anything from pot to 'exotic' stuff, do not mind doing anything in the name of 'trying out' and at the same time have to live responsible lives.  Yes, the people I am writing about are not jobless people who are just unnecessary baggage to the society.  On the contrary: they are often bright students who get into good colleges, or very young people who just passed out of college and entered their first, well-paying job.

It is such a shame to see people throwing their lives away like this.  They are smart, they usually come from very respectable families, have good jobs and have it made to live a good life the rest of their lives.  Instead, they lose control of themselves, live a'la carpe diem, spoil their health and ultimately are wasting their time.

It is scary to think that the world of tomorrow depends on the youth of today.  I am not saying that there are no good people...of course there are!  But there is a large number of youth that requires guidance and a certain measure of control.  Being educated does not necessarily imply people know what is best for them.  They apparently don't.  I wish that parents (especially people who still have young kids) realise what awaits their kids outside and teach them from a very young age on about responsibility, decency, and about the value of life.  We owe it to our kids.