Loss of Innocence

There's one thing that makes my gut wrench like no other... and it's the loss of innocence.
Several situations come to mind.  I don't know what brought it to the vast, arid, sparsely-populated region of my conscious mind, but for some reason, I thought about it today.

This one particular situation just infuriates me.  Why are we SO quick to shed 'innocence' in order to 'grow up'?  They are NOT the same... and I'm not even sure that EITHER of them are desireable.

I'm also reminded of two past situations.  The first one was a buddy of mine who had never uttered a foul word in his life.  Then, one summer, he just started dropping f-bombs.  And I don't think it upset him nearly as much as it did me.
Because, see, when we find someone who refrains from something, we begin to build up hope.  Not hope in that person, per se, but hope that abstaining from something (in this case, foul language) is possible, and in fact is being practiced.
But then that hope is shattered.

Another example is another friend of mine.  Now, I previously associated my disappointed with other, smaller, less consequential things.  I thought that it had to do with my hope in that person.  But that's not true; it had more to do with my hope in Christian humanity.  Now, I see that it's a very similar root issue as the one that was hit on above.  In this case, theguy had not previously consumed alcohol, and had gone so far as to make a decision to never-ever do so.
And then he did.
It was just like the air got sucked out of me.
I lost that hope, just as before.  Something that I thought was possible... became, once again, impossible.

So tonight, as I see people all around me toss away their innocence in favor of appearing more manly, more womanly, or just plain more worldly... I shed a nonexistent tear.
And wonder what this has to do with me, my own life, and my own lost innocence.