We all know that time gives you experience, but does it make one wise? What makes someone wise? Are they apprentices to ancient Chinese strategies, do they have more wrinkes than a charpe, or could they just be born that way? Maybe those aspects could help, but there is one thing on this topic I do know for sure; I know that teenagers, college-age kids and other youthful minds could be wise. I was once told that I shouldn't do an advice column because I didn't have much experience in life; I am too young.

Let me brief you on some misconceptions of youthfulness and inexperience as being wiseness-factors. I was known as one of those girls in school as being sheltered. "Oh, the poor girl, her mom doesn't let her do anything. She hasn't experimented with this or that," other kids would say. What they didn't understand was, I was sheltering myself from many things on purpose. Any kid can sneak out and get in trouble; it doesn't matter how many rules parents set. At a young age I was learning from others' experiences. I learned from their mistakes. I didn't have to try drugs when so many other kids were trying around me; I saw what kind of effect it had on them. Why would I need to personally inhale?

There are many others of our youth that are wise beyond what people think it takes years to accomplish.Wisdom can be sharpened through experience but there are those kids making great decisions in their life, already: taking care of their school work, helping out the family, staying out of negative environments. There even are times when children are more like the parents in their family; they take on much of the responsibility and have some things they can teach their mother or father. A youthful face can be very deceiving. If anyone knows of the actress Dakota Fanning, then they would understand when I say there must be a thirty year old woman stuck in that child's body. She is so smart and eloquent when she speaks. She has learned the art of grace and language. These young minds can sometimes teach us a thing or two.

I wonder what kind of advice column we would get from an eight year old; maybe it would be more pure than some fifty year old's; They could advise stuff like: "Give your mom a hug and make up" or "If I'm not supposed to steal candy from my sister, then you definitely shouldn't be stealing your friend's girlfriend." There would be much wisdom in their simplicity. Sometimes with age comes rationalizations and we make the world around us more complicated than it should be. We can become desensitized and brainwashed by society or the media.

Now I of course have to admit that I am much smarter than I was when I was sixteen. Learning is a constant need to sharpening our wiseness-sword, but to become truly wise doesn't mean you have to wait until you are sixty or go through so many marriages or kids or this or that. Extensive time and experiences are not necessary factors to being wise. It is how you make use of your time that you have now; it is trying to make all of the good decisions right now; it is about doing what's right and letting the consequences follow ( if it means you have to lose your job or relationship to sacrifice for something greater, you just do it) Having mentors along the way does help; but the old could use as much advice as do the young (otherwise Dr. Phil wouldn't be making millions as your reading this.)

I would like to take a moment for congratulating all the youth who are setting honorable goals and standards for themselves. They are using their capabilities of wiseness now and they will only become better and better as long as they stay on that path.