Will the younger generation get it now? Or when it's too late?

It's often been said that life is lived forward and understood backward -- we move through our daily lives doing certain things, but we don't understand the impact on the decisions we have made until after the fact.

It's something that is really beginning to bother me as I continue on into my fifth decade of life. I've spent some time over the past few years looking back on some of the decisions I have made in my life, wondering where my life would be if I had made them differently.

I've also tried to utilize these experiences in an effort to communicate with the generations behind me in an effort to steer them away from some of the dumber moves I've made in my life (and, yes, there have been a few -- more than I care to mention in specific detail here). And the question I'm always left with is -- do the younger generations even get it? And by the time they do, will it be too late?

I'm sure this is something that was, and still is, of concern to those who are older than I am. Between my parents and some of the wonderful personal and professional mentors I have who are getting up there in years, there is a TON of experience there that not only is being lost on the younger generations, but will soon be gone forever.

You never think about your own mortality when you're younger. Mom and Dad are taking care of the roof over your head, the clothes on your back and the food in your belly. More often than not, they even succumb to your unceasing desire to have the best toys, the trendiest clothes and whatever bell or whistle is required for you to be a part of the "it" group.

It is during those years when you can most benefit from the experience of those who have come before you. In the vast majority of cases, whatever challenge the younger generation faces has been experienced by those who have come before them. And yet, it seems that the younger generation is missing out on a golden opportunity to learn from those who have paved the road they now travel on.

My parents never did drugs when they were in college, and while I heard stories about some of my dad's exploits in college, I never really got much information on how to "live the college life." I learned it all on my own and made some mistakes that, looking back, were really stupid. I first smoked pot and experimented with other drugs in college. I drank a TON of alcohol in college. On occasion, I actually studied in college (which, supposedly, is what you are SUPPOSED to do -- but nobody mentioned anything about that to me).

Now, 20 years later, my daughter is in college and is making a move from a private, specialized school to a public university. The reason -- to "live the college life."

Her mother never really got to experience living on campus and doing all the crazy things college kids do, so she really doesn't have much of a personal reference to draw on when talking to my daughter about what she's about to encounter. Therefore, it's up to me to relay this information -- some of which is the kind of stuff no parent wants to see their kid involved in.

I'm very concerned about what "the college life" is all about in this day and age. When my parents were in their college-age years, about the only thing their parents had to worry about was excessive alcohol consumption. Drugs like LSD were just starting to find their way on college campuses during that time, and I'm sure there was a lot of concern about the effects those drugs would have on kids during that time.

Nowadays, it's a bigger, badder and scarier world. Alcohol and LSD are kids' stuff now. There are all kinds of drugs -- including methamphetamine -- that are out there now. Additionally, there are untold numbers of losers out there who seem to take a perverse pleasure in slipping something in the drink of an unsuspecting college girl, with the ultimate goal being to take her somewhere and rape her in her drugged-out state.

We never had these drugs around when we were in college, but having read and written enough about the topics over the years, I know what's out there and I know what kind of damage one of these scumbags can do on another human being -- like my own child.

As I said, life is lived forward and understood backward. The mistakes I've made in living my life are ones that I am able to understand years later, and I hope that somehow I can share those experiences -- much the same way as those older than me have done in sharing theirs -- and help today's younger generation avoid falling into the same traps I did when I was their age.

But will they get it now? Or will they wish they had later?