Wisdom means many things to different people. It can mean book smarts, street smarts, and everything in between. However wisdom means only one thing. What makes a person wise is more than what may appear. Good grades and college degrees do not make a person wise. They may imply wisdom, but such a conclusion is the result of a misleading understanding of what wisdom really is.
Wisdom is not success; it is not an elevated mental ability. Wisdom is something that anyone can have, at almost any age. Wisdom is a reflection of maturity; wise people are psychologically very mature. This is not to say that all wise people are old, or that mature people are always wise. Wisdom is gained through experiences, but those experiences alone give you no wisdom. It's only when you take the time to think critically about those experiences, and exercise your brain in every way possible that you gain any wisdom. Because, wisdom is not experience; wisdom is not intelligence; wisdom is understanding. Wisdom is an understanding of one's self, others, and the world around them. It is a heightened awareness of how the world works in a philosophical way rather than a political or economic manner. Wisdom is using your brain continuously. Wisdom is using your brain to its full potential. Wisdom is more than knowing facts or recalling information. Wisdom is understanding and comprehension of more than facts and previously stated information. Wisdom is gaining a deeper and more powerful type of knowledge through exercising your brain and continuing to create new thoughts and ideas, developing those thoughts, and further progressing ideas and understandings.
At the risk of sounding self-centered, I like to think I am a fairly wise person. I admit I'm not a philosopher or a playwright. I'm not a mathematician or a physicist. But what gives me some wisdom is the amount of time I spend thinking: thinking about my own life experiences, thinking about events in the world, thinking about anything and everything I encounter. I am still at a young age, so I wouldn't go as far to say that I am a wise person, but I would say that I have done well with the time I've had so far. Compared to most of the other young adults that surround me, I can spot only a few that share my characteristic of analyzing and over-analyzing daily situations and philosophical ideas. There are a handful of wise people in today's society. Present day philosophers and thinkers are few and far between, and this irritates me because everyone has the potential to be wise, and so few people seem to take advantage of such potential. We can all be wise. We are all wise. That's what makes us human. Most of us just need to see our potential.
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