The Wisdom Of Being An Idiot

An essay written for Goblin Skateboarding Magazine on the virtues of doing stupid things

There was a moment when you were younger, when somebody noticed something, high or wide, or smelly or dangerous and you all looked at each other, you knew without saying anything; somebody was gonna have to do it. Somebody had to take the plunge.

This is an article about young people. I care about young people because I recently was one, though these days I feel more and more like an eighty-year-old yelling at his TV screen, “God damn hippies!” Look, I’m no Greta Thornberg, and I certainly wasn’t Greta Thornberg when I was sixteen. I was watching conspiracy videos of lizards running Denver airport and going tenths on bags of shit weed. Thinking I was cool for not paying attention in fourth year, quitting boxing and getting caught drinking naggins before underage discos. We threw snowballs at cars, got in fights and made stupid mistakes, and I shudder at the thought of my sixteen-year-old self being given carte blanche to yell about my dreams at the UN because I had a chip on my shoul…