Life's Hard!

This is not my sentiment, but it is one I exclaim when I see young people that are clearly STRUGGLING through life or have made poor choices that have left them looking haggard & haphazard. I was at J's house Monday night watching a WONDERFUL show aptly titled: Jail. On this show they go to county jails over the US, most notably Paterson, NJ & Vegas.

As we watched person after person come into the facility and be printed & have their info taken. We realized how YOUNG some of them were. But how most of them looked older than us & we are in our 30s. I realized how very different some people's lives are from mine & my friends. None of us grew up especially rich or poor. And we all have our stories of things we've done & lived through. But NONE of us wears those things on our FACES!

I see KIDS on the train all the time looking disheveled & used all the way up & all I can think is: LIFE HARD! (you have to say it without the 's) WHat is going on in people's lives that at 19, 20, 21 you look like you have come up on the rough side of the mountain and slid back down on your front side?? I know people my age that went to the same schools as me  that took different path's in life and I understand that. But I wonder when they see that some of us don't look as old as other of us, how do they feel? What led them to the choices they made? I can't even fathom making so  many poor choices & life coming down on me so hard that I look in the mirror & don't even recognize myself anymore.

I feel truly blessed that life did not beat me down & that I continue to rebound from my mistakes & make better & better choices and especially grateful not to have ended up with the young old-face!