knowing everything

Being a young adult, there's a certain phrase that can sometimes get tossed around a lot when I try to talk about more intellectual things than video games, dating, school, that one party, etc. with an adult. It hasn't cropped up as much lately, since I'm in college now, but I heard the phrase in passing the other day and it got me thinking.

What is this esoteric phrase, you might wonder. Simple: know-it-all.

I absolutely hate this idiom, especially when it's used in conjunction with younger people. Maybe it's just the fact that I write YA, but implying that someone is lesser or incapable of understanding something just because they haven't yet spent enough time revolving around the sun? That's stupidity at worst and egocentrism at best. Stupid because one of the greatest powers of the human imagination is sympathy, egocentric because placing yourself on a pedestal made up solely of years spent living is like saying, "Well, I've been alive longer, therefore clearly you can say nothing I don't already know."

Gee, it's not like everyone has an individual experience and perspective or anything like that. It's a good thing having an opinion is like going on a carnival ride: you must have to be this tall to enter.

Now, granted, I understand that there is a phase that most kids will go through where they really do think they know everything. But that happens around, what, age seven? So in terms of this rant, it's irrelevant. I actually think teenagers get pigeonholed into the know-it-all category more often than little kids do, because adults have this perception about teenagers. It's like they should "know better" than to offer their mundane insights into this world they cannot possibly understand. Going through high school, you're supposed to be quick and sharp and competitive and original, the Renaissance Man's bigger and sexier sibling, but just don't try to tell the big dogs how to roll, huh? You should "know better."

Know better. Do you feel that uptick of temperature in the room? That's the steam coming out of my ears. However, "know better" is a rant for another time.

If you're seventeen or so, it's true you may not know the intricacies of financial enterprise; maybe you don't know how to file a tax return; perhaps you've not been hardened against this tragedy of living. That's good. That's how it should be. In a way, not knowing means you not only know it all, but know more than anyone could ever guess.

Call me hopeless, a romantic, unintelligent, whatever. But I think that the minute you accept the world for what it is and let the future cease to be something terrifyingly fantastic, the second you think you've seen it all, or the moment you believe you can't be surprised or amazed, then you're the one who should know better.

Off and out.

Taylor Webb