Being Jaded: A Personal Choice

So I recently have gone on a couple of dates with a guy and he pointed out my lack of being "jaded." At first he said he attributed it to my age, as I am only 19 and a little more optimistic and hopeful about what my future has in store for me, but after talking about life experiences and getting to know more about each other, he said he didn't think that was the case.

I had been unfamiliar with that word, "jaded." But I have noticed that many of my friends and love interests have seemed to assimilate it to their vocabulary. So I decided to look it up:

jad·ed

adjective \ˈjā-dəd\

: feeling or showing a lack of interest and excitement caused by having done or experienced too much of something

CloseStyle: MLA APA Chicago

Full Definition of JADED

1

: fatigued by overwork : exhausted

2

: made dull, apathetic, or cynical by experience or by surfeit <jaded network viewers> <jaded voters>

I was curious about why there was something about adulthood that causes people to become jaded. People have said they become jaded because their lives don't end up how they wanted them to be or envisioned it to be, their career plans are different because their dreams were too big for them, they're frustrated because they can't find "the one."

I understand these things. I thought I would be serving a mission right now. I'm getting educated in a field that is very unstable and unreliable, I still struggle whether I should be dating a woman or men, I've had problems with depression. I get how those things can make you jaded. I let them make me jaded for a long time, starting when I was 13 until I was 17. But that left me with so much unhappiness and unfulfillment. It was a lot to let this jaded unhappiness consume me, but as a wise man once told me, when has anything good come about by taking the path of least resistance?

So I have come to the conclusion that being jaded is a personal choice. It's a choice to either be bitter with the path that life has taken you, or have faith that even though things didn't go as you planned, God has a plan for you, and His plan is perfect and you're going to end up where you need to, and even if that isn't what you initially wanted, it's what you get. There's no point in becoming "dull, apathetic, or cynical" about your life, because you only get one.

There's always something bright to look up to. There's always something good in a person. It just might take a little more effort to find it and to get there, but I can promise you that the effort is worth it. Being jaded doesn't have to be a requirement of adulthood.

But then again, who am I to say anything? After all, I'm only 19 years old. ;)