Ages of Man
By Megan DiMaiolo
25 Mar 2009
Emotion; all feel it. It is what lives inside of us everyday and make us all equal. Everyone feels. They can feel happy or sad, or disappointed or neglected. It's what makes our lives continue on. An age of man; it's more than an age; it's a sense of maturity. Maturity found through experience. Experience brought on by emotions.
When we first enter the world, we first see happiness. Laughter, tears of joy, smiles. An infant's first smile is said to give a new angel its wings, so the heavens are full of angels to guide the new person to a life of happiness, something we all long for. Happiness, the youngest of all feelings and the least complicated. When a child first cries of sadness, are they confused? Tears, small crystals coming from the windows of one's heart and soul, the small droplets that allows others into your own small world, if only for a second to see what your own weakness is, making yourself vulnerable to those around you.
As we grow older we become curious. Curious about life, curious about death, curious about why we are here; to fulfill a destiny? To create our own fate? To find our own purpose in life? Ask questions, learn new knowledge, experience new experiences and take on new challenges.
A new emotion kicks in at this age; fear. A fear of the future, a fear of what is to come. We start with a fear of the monster under our bed, an amateur fear. Fear for life, fear of disappointment, fear of failure, fear of getting hurt. This is a turning point in one's life, when one allows themselves to fully fear something and allow it to be known. They have learned to accept themselves.
The climax of emotion, the most complicated of feelings, the emotion everyone searches for and longs for in their lives; love, the happiness that defies happiness, the excitement that makes you beyond excited, the feeling that makes you feel you have a reason to live. You can not explain love, it's that complicated emotion that can not be put into words. It lifts you up and cares for you, because for the first time in your young life, you are important to someone else; someone who can not live without you, someone who would walk a thousand miles just to be with you. And in your heart, you know if they left you, you would fall to pieces; you do not care what other's opinions are about you anymore, all that matters is that one person because everything just feels right when they are with you. You do not care how many rules you break, or how many miles are between you or any hardships you may encounter. All that matters is each other and you would do anything for that one person to ensure their happiness, even if it causes sadness for you. Yet, you do not allow the person to see this sadness or your tears, for you want to be strong for them in times of sorrow.
You begin to feel concern, the next emotion. Concern for their well being, for their happiness, for their safety, for that person to know how much you care, how much you love them and for them to know they are the only one for you.
And as life comes to a slow end and death comes knocking on your door, regret begins for some. Regret for things they have not done, regret for things that they have done, regret for not saying sorry or I love you or you mean the world to me at least once in their lives. Regretting experiences lost, times forgotten, dreams unfulfilled. Someone without regret has lived their life to the fullest. With love being the strongest emotion, many hope for their last words to be 'I love you' to whomever their heart belongs to. And as they take their last breath, they receive an 'I love you too' to take with them until they meet up with the one who has their heart once again. And with their last breath, a first breath is taken when a baby is born, and the wheel of life continues to roll on in a never ending path.
