The Spirit of Youth Is Something You Cannot Replenish

“The spirit of youth is something you cannot replenish.”

I first heard this while scrolling through short videos, and it hit me right in the heart!

I was curious enough to look up where it came from. I thought it must be from some book or writer, but apparently neither was the case. It was simply an expression that had caught on online.

That tells you how many people it must have struck a chord with.

01

The day before yesterday, I met up with my university roommate and another university friend. My roommate was taking her mother on a trip to western Sichuan, and they were passing through Chengdu, so we managed to see each other.

Wow~ When I thought about it, we really hadn't seen each other in years! Having a friend come from so far away made me very happy!

We lived together for almost all four years of university, but we were completely different people.

She was an absolute star student: very smart, always getting A's. My memory of her is of someone always at home reading and studying. I was busy having fun in all sorts of ways, and only studied seriously just before finals.

Anyway, I remember her graduating with first-class honours. As for me... among that crowd, I probably counted as a bit of an academic underachiever. But I did graduate with my head held high in the end, ha~

Those four years at university were still pretty full. I feel as though I did all sorts of things, apart from studying properly.

I suppose my goal back then was simply to graduate, with grades that weren't too dreadful.

Because, honestly, I was surrounded by brilliant students. Looking at them, I felt this wasn't a competition I could win just by burying myself in books. I knew my own limits, pu~

My roommate said she was my “ATM,” because I often borrowed money from her. Small amounts, though, and I would soon pay her back when the university sent the next month's money.

I asked her why I was always broke. Was I genuinely short of money, or did I just spend it too fast?

She said I probably travelled too much and spent it too quickly, so I often ran out by the end of the month.

Hahaha... That really cracked me up! It was entirely possible.

Back then, I was broke but loved having fun. Whenever a holiday came around, I'd sling on a big hiking backpack and head out to roam the world. I thought being a backpacker was incredibly cool, like a 侠客, one of the wandering heroes of old Chinese tales.

Universities overseas also had plenty of breaks. Besides the long winter and summer holidays, there was a mid-semester recess week. Sometimes there would be a long stretch without classes before finals, maybe two or three weeks. That gave me plenty of chances to travel.

Over those four years studying in Singapore—坡岛, as I call it—I travelled all over Southeast Asia and visited quite a few places.

While other people spent their winter and summer breaks doing internships and working to build their résumés, I was roaming the world, watching people, taking in the scenery, and full of curiosity about everything.

I really did have tremendous stamina then. I could walk long distances with a 10-kilogram backpack. There's no way I could do that now. If I can wheel a suitcase, I absolutely will not carry the weight on my back.

Because I didn't have much money then, I certainly couldn't ask my family to fund my travels. I even had to keep the trips from them. So I could only save a little at a time out of my scholarship of 500 Singapore dollars a month. By the holidays, I'd have enough for a proper adventure, haha!

So every itinerary and route was meticulously planned. The idea was to spend as little as possible, go as far as possible, see as much as possible, and stay safe.

That was actually quite a challenge back then, without Google Maps or online travel guides to consult!

But I loved treating every trip as a test of my own abilities—challenging myself to find the cheapest flights, transport, accommodation, sightseeing, food, and shopping, and seeing whether I could improve and beat my previous record each time.

I enjoyed seeing the world on my own. I also loved the thrill of setting myself a challenge and then beating my own record. Back then, I thought I would conquer the world sooner or later.

Those moments are still vivid in my mind. Together, they have become some of the treasured memories of my life, filling me with excitement, joy, and longing whenever I think of them.

They talked about so many things that day, and honestly, I could barely remember a lot of them. But backpacking is the one thing I don't think I'll ever forget.

Because that old desire to “conquer the world” may be very hard to find again now.

02

When we got onto work, it turned out she was still at the Fortune 500 multinational I'd originally recommended her to.

Wow~ I realised I'd already been gone for 10 years, and she was still there, even after several rounds of colleagues had come and gone.

I suddenly remembered referring her for an interview for something like an inside sales and operations role.

I recommended her to my boss, and he interviewed her himself.

Afterwards, he came back and said to me in a slightly “provocative” tone, “This person you recommended is very smart. Very capable. And her English communication skills are better than yours!”

I said, “Yes, she's a star student. Her grades have always been better than mine. But so what? Aren't I the one bringing in the orders and making you money right now?”

My boss burst out laughing. “True enough~ hahaha.”

Feeling I'd been a little too cocky, I tried to soften it by adding, “We each have our strengths. Give it some time and you'll see.”

More than half a year later, perhaps a year, my boss said during a chat, “You may have been right. I've noticed something: she really doesn't seem to have any big aspirations. No ambition at all.”

I said, “Yes, I know her very well. But what you need in this role is someone who can deal with problems efficiently and reliably. She's the ideal person. You hardly need to worry about her at all. You just can't also expect her to be the one charging ahead.”

Even now, my roommate and her mother agree with that. Her mother even says she doesn't have much drive to get ahead and is content just to have a job.

I might once have disapproved of young people who didn't want to get ahead. But after going through a lot myself, I now feel there's nothing wrong with it. If you can understand what kind of life you enjoy, then live accordingly and make a good life for yourself, that's plenty. There's no need to keep shaking everything up.

What seems worst to me is being torn between wanting to coast and not wanting to coast, wearing yourself down with indecision and depression. That's the most miserable position: never able to make peace with yourself, and suffering all the way through.

As for someone like me, perhaps I'm simply born to keep trying things and stirring things up for as long as I'm alive. Whatever comes of it, I have to own it. It's what I chose.

Thinking back on that story, remembering how I talked back to my boss—young, headstrong, blindly confident, and with no idea of my own limits—really does make me laugh out loud. But I truly miss that version of myself, too.

(I should also thank my boss here for being so tolerant and generous. No wonder he did well in his career, haha.)

And suddenly I remembered that line online that had touched so many people: the spirit of youth is something you cannot replenish.

Yes, it is~

Looking back now, how precious that innocent, dream-filled, utterly fearless spirit of youth was!

Once adults have been disciplined—battered, really—by society, how much of it remains? How many of us still have it?

If you still have that spirit more than 10 years after graduating, or even 20, treasure it all the more.

03

Then last night, I suddenly thought: why not use AI to make an image on this theme? So I gave GPT-5 a try.

Clearly, GPT-5 wasn't much good at drawing. Such a science student, with no sense of poetry or atmosphere at all. Somehow, a foreign large model had produced something that looked like a Chinese propaganda poster from the 1990s. Zeze, I honestly don't know what to say.

I thought they were too ugly, so I made some more with 即梦, an AI image-generation tool. Sure enough, they were much better. At least the colours, styles, and ideas were more varied, and the images came out reasonably well. It did have some aesthetic sense. (P.S. Using DeepSeek to write prompts inside 即梦 actually made the results uglier. Long prompts weren't as good as short ones, either. Just letting 即梦 do its own thing worked fine.)

The image below is my favourite.

It gives me this feeling of “a tiny body daring to face a vast world and take on towering mountains,” a warm kind of strength.

即梦 understands the spirit of youth.

All right, after writing all this, I still feel so much when I say it: the spirit of youth is something you cannot replenish.

My wish for all of you is this: protect your spirit of youth, and keep moving bravely forward. Keep going!

by Erika

That's all.