THE CHANGING NATURE OF "COOL"

     I came across two teenage girls in an out-of-the-way parking lot, sitting on the pavement and smoking cigarettes. Heavily bassed music pumped out of the window of their parked car. Sitting there, one on the curb, the other on the blacktop, smoke billowing from them in clouds, they were the epitome of "cool." Much like them, as a teenager, I was heartily drawn to being cool, but as life grows us, cool changes... or maybe we do.
     It used to be about doing things that I wasn't supposed to do, that weren't for my highest health or my highest good, and doing them with a certrain brazen sense that I could somehow get away with them without having to suffer any consequences. What made me cool was the attitude that I knew my choices were dangerous, but I chose them anyway. Being cool was saying "I dare you" to danger. I felt powerful and untouchable. I stood up and dared life to slap me, and then, eventually, it did. The wake-up call always comes.
     What's cool for me today is different. It's recognizing that consequences happen and that I can work with them. No more pretending that I am bigger and badder than cause and effect. Today, I build things. I play with causes to create positive effects. I change my habits and behaviors to feel better and then even better still. Sky's the limit. Being cool today is knowing who I am and refusing to pretend otherwise. It's working with the reality of my strengths and weaknesses to be the best and happiest me that I can be.

I've outgrown the defiance of teenage "cool." I don't need to pretend anything. There's nothing cooler than being authentically myself.