My mother has always said to me “you are wise beyond your years”, but what does that mean. Whenever my mom says it, it brings a smile to her face, like it’s the most incredible thing she has ever heard. She seems to always say to her friends, “Don’t worry, Allie is wise beyond her years. I have never had to worry about her.” Her friends usually spread their congratulatory messages or impressed words my way, but I’m not really sure what I did to be wise beyond my years. Am I great grandmother willow from Pocahontas? Am I the elderly storyteller guiding the hero to his destiny? No and no because I am simply an eighteen year old girl who can’t seem to remember if she locked her car or fed the dogs. Am I truly wise beyond my years?

What is wisdom anyway? Why is it the willow tree and the storyteller my imagination’s view of wisdom. The willow tree in the movie Pocahontas never tells Pocahontas how to live or make her decision, but rather uses questions and metaphors to guide her to her own destiny. Is that why grandmother willow is wise? I think the trees wisdom stems from the age of the tree and the advice she gives. The advice that helps someone come to their own decision. This is also why the storyteller appears wise. She tells the hero what he needs to hear so he can bravely venture out on his own. These examples are make believe of course but the idea of wisdom behind them is true.

Wisdom must be the ability to provide clarity in challenging situations. Maybe that’s it but I can’t help but think wisdom has more substance to it. Age and wisdom may go hand in hand, but I think wisdom can be learned and gained at any age. After an awful break up, I told my sister that sometimes when one door closes another window opens; I was eleven. I just wanted to her to feel better but she recently share with me how it helped her realize that the end of that relationship didn’t mean the end of her life. Wisdom is not about age; it is about knowing what someone needs to hear in order to except change. Often this skill isn’t learned till we have reach our elderly years and that is why some would assume that the elderly only hold wisdom. The older you are the more likely it is you have experienced struggle, pain, loss, love, travel, learning then most young adults haven’t. Age means you have had more opportunities to mess up or fail thus more opportunities to learn. Age also means you have had more opportunities to make the right decision. I would protest that wisdom is only for the elderly. Anyone who can learn from their mistakes, observe an ability to change, can be wise.

At the age of seven, I was diagnosed with a learning disability. I was unable to read at my age group, unable to spell the simplest words, unable to comprehend the same material as my peers. I came home from school everyday defeated, some days even crying over my struggles. I begged my mom to feed me the answers but she’d look at me and tell me I could do it, just try it. I tried it, and I started succeeding. I was embarrassed of my learning disability until I reached high school. I looked at my friends and myself. I knew how to study and work on my own, and yet my peers were lost without the guidance of teachers and parents. It was then that I learned something so important. My learning disability wasn’t embarrassing it was a struggle that taught me how to be a better student. I learned just because something was hard did not mean it was impossible and worth the effort. I am ready to go to college with this piece of wisdom. The wisdom to know that you are truly capable of whatever is placed in front of you.

Wisdom is the ability to see how every action we take might affect another aspect of our lives, our futures. Take for example, my sister and her choice of college. She is an incredible artist yet she applied to a private catholic college, one with high school level art courses. She got there and was miserable. She was studying art techniques she has learned at fourteen. Within two months she knew that was not where she was meant to be, because her life would not end up the way she had imagined. She applied to several art schools, getting into her dream school The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Though she lacked the wisdom to realize where she should have applied originally, she learned that the places we choose to send ourselves will change the course of our lives. She learned not to forget what she wants. That is her wisdom, to put herself first. She hasn’t stopped since. She worked as a manager at a Starbucks until she hated it, quite and quickly found her new job, a sales analyst for a sustainability company. It has nothing to do with art yet she is completely happy. Her own wisdom is guiding her down a new trail. I think wisdom has more substance then my original definition. It’s complicated. Wisdom is failing. Wisdom is learning. Wisdom is experiencing. Wisdom is knowing who you are. Wisdom is loving. Wisdom is pain. Wisdom is knowing how to take a situation in your hands, see every angle of the what if’s, maybe’s, and possible outcomes, sort through them, thinking over everything you have learned from life in order to make the best decision for you.

Wisdom must also have knowledge, the knowledge of what ifs and maybes. Think about two friends, Leah and Sam, who have been fighting a lot lately. Leah has been starting fights with Sam more often then normal. The two are like sisters, yet they can’t stand to be around each other. Sam tries to figure out what is bothering Leah, but when she asks, Leah immediately argues with her. Sam’s impulse is to fight back, to keep arguing around and around in circles.  If she were to follow her impulse what would happen, both Leah and Sam would be angry but what if she were to walk away until Leah cooled down. Walking away, that is a form of wisdom. Sam walks away thinking maybe she had done something wrong, but then she realizes, Leah is moving away. Her impulse tells her that can’t be why Leah is upset but her wisdom knows that it is. Leah is afraid to move to a new town without her best friend. The example, though simple shows that taking a situation in your hands, looking at every single convexity and protrusion before making a decision could alter the outcome. Thought is wisdom. Action with knowledge is wisdom. We cannot have wisdom unless we start to analyze how to act and respond. Wisdom is about learning. Sam had fought back before and it did nothing, so instead she walked away, she learned that it wasn’t about her, Leah was just taking out her own problems on a friend.

Defining wisdom is complex. Wisdom is knowing that everything is not what it seems, that we must first look from every angle before acting, and that we must have faith in our own abilities in order to succeed. Wisdom is about being afraid, yet unafraid to try. Wisdom is about failing until you learn something new. Wisdom is about seeing possibility before acting. Wisdom is truly learnable. I cannot teach anyone but myself to be wise, because wisdom comes from thought and self-reliance. Wisdom comes from reason and knowledge. So maybe I am wise beyond my years in a sense, but I think I still have more to learn about my wisdom and I’ll keep learning with ever mistake, choice, life event that passes me by.