Toke Makinwa and the Promotion of the Excesses of Youthful Exuberance
While the outrage against Toke Makinwa’s recent video is somehow justified, I personally do not agree with the insults hurled at her. To begin with, she stated her opinion about how to live life to the fullest when one has the chance to.
However, the examples given are way too crude, immoral and unworthy of a responsible person.
I don’t know Toke as a life coach or anything close to that but her recent advice is nothing but an endorsement of youthful exuberance which in itself is not bad but when moderation and caution is thrown out the window, one begins to wonder what the point of the video was actually.
Youthful exuberance simply means; the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience. These laid down qualities comes most of the time in the wake of youthfulness. Hence, the name Youthful Exuberance.
At the age of 20, one is deemed a full adult and of course the characteristics attached to that age is categorized as exuberance.
While a lot of people kicked off that stage of their lives indulging in sex, alcohol, smoking and use of drugs, others have used that period to define a clear path for their future.
I’m not here to dictate how people should live their lives neither am I making rules that should be followed for living. I’m just trying hard to make sense of how having sex with strangers, inscribing tattoos and puncturing body parts formulate characteristics of living life to the fullest.
Yes, maybe Toke was just trying to tell us to live life to the fullest and all that it means to be a youth but truth is; there’s so much to life than all she listed and of course, which will still not cut out your youthful days or make those days boring.
Considering, the kind of society that we live in, I strongly believe that the window of youthfulness should be properly utilized in such a way and manner that will not truncate one’s life.
Take for example, the one-night-stand statement is an endorsement of pre-marital sex which could also come in form of unprotected sex. Do I need to go into details of what the results of that could be? I bet we already know.
Part of what Toke is endorsing is what some people did and they regret for the rest of their lives. Encouraging youthful exuberance and the “cool kid” social construct. Some have been plagued with unwanted pregnancies that has led to abortion which in turn led to death because abortion is illegal in Nigeria and that has given a flourishing window to quack medical practitioners to risk lives of young women in other to make fast cash.
Some lives have been forever truncated because of stuff like what Toke is promoting. These things (Youthful Exuberance) will always come in at a certain stage in one’s life and that is a constant giving. However, I think what a sensible adult should do is promote and encourage decency and moderation throughout that period.
We should remember that a lot of youths get lost in those years of youthful exuberance and it takes a lot of work to get their lives back on track. There’s much to life than being a typical 20 year old.
I can categorically tell you that I did lots of things my parents warned me against but truth is; a constant reminder of where I come from in form of my mother’s voice was the thin line between life and death for me.
I will never agree with Toke on some of the things she said. I’m cool with the “make friends” part even though, one still needs to be very careful with the kind of friends we make but the promotion of sex among youths is not the way to go.
I’m pretty sure most of you will never encourage your 20 year olds to have sex, well unless of course, you don’t see anything wrong with that.
I’m all for meeting people, building bridges, attending parties, traveling, forming alliances. As a matter of fact, I’m for the Live, Love, Laugh aspect of life but encouraging pre-marital sex, body piercing all in one statement is over-reaching. Here in lies the problem with Toke’s video. We already have a lot of misconducts being promoted in today’s media and that in itself is a huge societal problem.
In as much as youthful exuberance is a constant in the life of a growing child, I don’t think engaging in immorality under the guise of living life should be endorsed and encouraged in the way and manner Toke has.
About the Author: Adeeko Ademola @OmoGbajaBiamila is a Fiery Writer • Digital Content Creator • Public Relations • Entrepreneur • Patriotic Nigerian
Leave a Comments