Those were years of having health, having dreams, having unexpected trips and times of daring to do things that later thinking about myself also felt reckless. But the longer he lived, the more he understood the saying read online: "The most beautiful thing is not necessarily youth, but youth has someone to call a soulmate".
Because youth itself is not always beautiful.
There are people who are twenty years old but lonely. There are people who are full of ambition but don't know who to confide in. He remembers a photographer friend who once told him about the early years of starting a career. Back then, he was so poor that his only camera had to be bought in installments. Some months, the cost of food had to be calculated for each meal. But on weekends, he and a close friend took the camera out to the street, wandering around, flirting, taking photos from morning to night. Many days, he could only take a few temporary photos all day. But later, when he had his own exhibition and had a winning work, the thing he remembered most was the afternoons when the two of them sat by a glass of iced tea, arguing about how to cut a photo, how to process light. He said: "Beautiful photos can be taken later. But someone who understands you to the point of saying half a sentence and knowing what you are thinking is not easy to meet a second time.
A soulmate does not necessarily have to be a lover. But their presence makes our youth have a different color. They are the ones who witnessed our first failures without laughing. They are the ones who listened to us retell a silly dream and still patiently listened. They are the ones who saw our most clumsy version but still chose to stay.
Life later may give us more. But it doesn't always give us a soulmate. Because the older you get, the busier you become. Meetings are increasing but real connections are decreasing. We get to know hundreds more people, save more phone numbers, but people who can call in the middle of the night to confide in life, sometimes just a complaint when the work pressure is too high, can be counted on the fingers.
That's why when we remember youth, we remember the person who walked with us in the rain that year. Remember the person sitting next to us in the most disappointing days. Remember the person who understands the things we haven't had time to say. Then time will take away youth like an irresistible rule. Green hair will gradually turn gray. Familiar roads will change.
If in those most beautiful years, we once had someone to call a soulmate, then youth will not just be a period that has passed. It will become a region of memory that is always still bright.
