Solace in the Universality of Youth
“Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.”
- Patti Smith, Just Kids.
Imagine for a second that you are an artist in your twenties: the visual kind; or a writer, musician, filmmaker, or any combination. Imagine you’re struggling to make sense of the aspects of your life. Your career path, friends, family; all while watching the world (which barely makes any sense to begin with) shifting in an erratic manner. Your nose is pressed to a metaphorical window watching nineteen-year-olds get famous overnight and childhood heroes die or get dragged down from their pedestals for heinous acts of their past. It gets dystopian, surreal.
Many are living through this precise situation around the world. It is in times like these that I am thankful the young adult experience is all but unique and the likes of Patti Smith have graced us with their own accounts of this tumultuous transit in life. A transit that for her took place in the 70s no less, a period in World History so bizarre and chaotic it feels familiar.
Patti Smith -for those not aware of her robust body of work- is an American poet, author, and photographer who has resided in New York City since 1968. She’s the spirit of the 70s personified: Rock n’ Roll and quick wit. Loud, scrappy, completely dominating androgynous aesthetics. She could look right at home amongst a crowd at easter mass or Woodstock. Her memoir Just Kids outlines her youthful creation myth, centering in her twenties and following her coming into her own accompanied by her partner, muse and twin flame, Robert Mapplethorpe.
Finding this book, venturing into Smith’s past at this specific point in life is anchoring. It reminds us that things take time, relationships must be fostered and cared for. Plans go awry, and from their ashes new opportunities rise that were not even dreamed of before. Through everything the first person that must believe in their work has to be oneself. The book displays the tribulations and darker aspects of the artist lifestyle, but also highlights what makes it appealing to us all: the camaraderie and sense of community with other artists, the swelling crowds who listen, the anecdotes that verge on fantastical.
Throughout this book Smith does not shy away from her accomplishments but manages to portray herself in a relatable way: a young woman of immense ambition, uncertain where her path leads but determined to follow through towards adventure. Living in pursuit of art and community, finding passion and vocation along the way.
This book is poetry. An ode to friendship and love. A song for soulmates that roam the earth looking for each other and the magic that bursts forth when fate has them collide. It is not a map to navigate young adulthood. It is a companion guide that highlights the emotions, the identity crises, the naiveté and hopefulness that has marked most young people’s existence back in the 70s and all the way to the 21st century.