"To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid."
~Unknown
I have found that people will look at a younger crowd and measure them up to these intelligent and wise adults. Saying stuff like, why can't you be more like him or her? Why do you not think before you act?
The honest truth here is simple, people that you look up to, that you measure others to, become wise not because they were born that way, but because they first became and grew to be that way.
People don't one day understand the feelings of loss, betrayal, pain, or despair because they read it in a magazine or watched it in a movie. True understanding came by going through that pain and despair, that loss or hardship, and overcoming it, and letting it shape who might become.
Wise people have stories and advice because they use to be in the same boat as you. They lost love ones, they tasted the bitterness of defeat and betrayal, they made wrong decisions and had to face the consequences that followed.
Don't judge a person by their mistakes, appreciate them, when they overcome their mistakes and learn from them.
Life is not about doing everything right...it's about living with what you've got and learning to move forward with it.
Like I said before, you're not born wise... it's something you become.
