"Within a Morning Star"

I often get frustrated with my prevailing indecision about life. At the beginning of this year, I realized that I had wasted the first 16 years of my life in mediocrity and daily activity, without any real purpose outside of "finding my identity." The problem was, I never sought an identity in anything of substance. I tried the instant-identity of appearance, and found little confidence there. At sixteen, I was holding onto the lyrics to "Hundred Years" by Five For Fighting while trying to grasp at eternity. I've always known the cliche truths that life is short and time is fleeting, but it hit me hard on my sixteenth birthday. There is so much to do, so much to learn and experience and know and teach. I won't waste my life or squander time. There is beauty in life, and much to live for, many to serve, knowledge to gain, hope to spread truth to share.
Side note, of sorts: I have always hated stereotypes. I will not embody that of a normal teenager--partying all night, sleeping til noon, disregarding social and political issues, getting my education and opinion from celebrities, viewing the world cynically, being apathetic to basically everything. The sterotype my MTV generation has been labelled with is not all wrong. In fact, there are many young ppl who live this lifestyle; however, I am disappointed in adults when they assume every human under 25 who grew up in Western culture is the fruition of such prophetic stereotypes. Too many people--and I admit this goes both ways--see a generation and not an individual. It's disheartening, but remediable. It just takes some vision and labor.
I realize this post does not have the most logical flow; I'm thinking more than I'm typing, so there are bound to be gaps in the thought process.