Creeping ever nearer is the day when, while absently staring into your mirror, time stops and your first grey hair makes its debut appearance.

When you eventually regain consciousness, instead of rushing to the nearest pharmacy to stock up on hair dye, pop open some bubbly – the view over the hill actually isn’t so bad.

It would be easy to believe that life ends once you hit 30, but, just like Canada’s presence in Afghanistan, there’s many a surprise down the road.

While youth has traditionally meant the period between childhood and adulthood, the term has ballooned into a brand characterized by unlimited possibility and wanton extravagance.

This hedonistic caricature is due perhaps to the creation of a thriving commercial youth market that screams from every shop window that they are young, rebellious, tech-savvy and, above all else, dizzyingly stylish.

Youths are said to be at the pinnacle of their lives, ready to face any challenge with a blazing white smile and a lifestyle of reckless abandon.

Like most of the effluent coming from calculated marketing schemes, however, this image is made to sell – nothing more. 

Being young yet not fitting in with these carefree cultural symbols – designer jeans included – can create immense feelings of inadequacy. Don’t brood over it too long, however; you’ll soon be too old to even consider sizing up.

To complicate matters, this idolization of youth simultaneously appears in the form of hope: youths are seen to be the bearers of our future. It is repeated, almost as a mantra, that the youth must be heard and must be involved.

I’ve attended many youth conferences designed to do just this, yet time after time, when every effort was made to amplify the voice of the youth, the only reward was a polite yawn followed by a series of mundane copouts.

The reality is that it takes a long time to build a skill set and to learn the workings and intricacies of the world’s challenges. No amount of idealistic hope can serve as substitute.

These pre-packaged conceptions of youth as product and youth as saviour would be irrelevant if youths were simply viewed as people.

Don’t get me wrong. The wonderful group of people under 30 featured in this issue proves that young people are capable of great things.

I am not suggesting a loss of faith in youth but an acknowledgment that what we perceive to be a purely youthful spark can continue throughout all of one’s life.

Examples of people who reject aging norms are plentiful: The Raging Grannies (all old enough to be grandmothers) perform politicized protests using song. At 88, Betty White continues to be an entertainment star, while a number of triathletes continue to compete well into their 90s.

All this while Willow Smith releases an oddly catchy chart-topping hit at the age of nine. Restrictions based on age really are self-imposed.

Youths need to be at the table discussing the important issues affecting us today – not as tokens representing a market-created image or as bearers of hope but as people working in collaboration with the vibrancy brought by groups from all backgrounds and ages. 

So, years after you read this article, when the lush memories of your bygone youth are safely stored away, you may find yourself again looking in the mirror.

Your head by then may be covered in silver, but by that point, you can simply smile knowingly, for your days of glory will still be in full throttle.

Ezra Bridgman has a receding hairline and isn’t worried about it.

Published in Volume 65, Number 14 of The Uniter (December 2, 2010)