For Just a Moment

We laughed until we had to cry
And we loved right down to our last goodbye
We were the best, I think we’ll ever be
Just you and me
For just a moment

We chased that dream we never found
And sometimes we let one another down
But the love we made
Made everything alright
We shone so bright
For just a moment

Time goes on, People touch and they’re gone
And you and I will never love again
Like we did then

Someday when we both reminisce
We’ll both say there wasn’t too much we missed
And through the tears, We’ll smile when we recall
We had it all
For just a moment

Time rolls on, People touch and then they’re gone
But you and will never really end
We’ll never love again
Like we did then

We laughed until we had to cry
And we loved right down to our last goodbye
--For Just a Moment (Love Theme From 'St. Elmo's Fire')

There’s something magical about youth, an amplification of human emotion. It’s a time of first experiences and truth be told, the intensity of subsequent experiences rarely lives up to the intensity of our firsts. First kiss, first love, first broken heart.

And it’s because of that intensity and newness that, as adolescents, we tend to blow things a bit out of proportion. We can’t imagine how anyone else could have ever loved or been hurt like that before us. We’re still young enough to believe we can change the world, and not yet old enough to realize that chances are we won’t.

When you add to that the trappings of adult responsibility; the bills, mortgage payments, the 40 hour work week many of us eventually become slaves to; these haven’t yet invaded our lives. Our focus on that intensity of emotion grows so singular that it can’t possibly be matched in adulthood.

And then, as we grow older our adolescence often gets idealized. The sepia tones of memory often paint a much brighter picture of the highest highs of our past at the same time dulling the lowest lows. And with every re-painting of those memories those lowest lows grow duller until they eventually disappear leaving a bright vivid picture of only the best times of our lives.

----------------
Now playing: Kids in the Kitchen - Current Stand
via FoxyTunes