Choose to Take the Journey

Yesterday was my birthday and I just turned… older. Unless you’re a child anxious to grow up or a senior looking to break a century, most people don’t actually look forward to the irreversible accumulation of years. It means slower metabolism, wrinkles, hair loss in places you should have hair, and hair growth in places you should not have hair.

But it doesn’t have to all be downhill as they say. The quality of your life is determined less by your youthful vigor than by the quality of the distinctions you make: figuring out what you want, what you don’t want, and what you didn’t even know you wanted. Just as a sculptor hews away at a block of stone, a man who makes ever finer distinctions cuts away the extraneous to free the masterpiece within. Getting older grants you the time and perspective necessary to make such distinctions, from choosing the right career, to learning what you should not talk about on a first date, like the time you and your friend won an epic 5-hour 2v2 Starcraft game. Save it for the second date.

Even if I now have to watch my diet to keep my cholesterol in check, or use eye drops to keep my eyes from feeling like a desert, I look forward to getting older if it means uncovering my deepest potential, because you never know when you might be a single strike of the chisel away from glory.