Getting Older

There was a point as I got older — say, around age 25 — that I worried I was kaput. My fear was that anything I hadn't yet mastered — speaking French, reading alto and tenor clefs, and surfing, for example — would forever elude and frustrate me. My fear was based on the childish (and erroneous) belief that grown-ups can't learn.

Well, funny enough, one of the things I've learned in my 30 years of life is that, yes, grown-ups can learn. And, in fact, if they have spent time honing their learning abilities and habits, they can learn better — more quickly and more deeply — than younger people. By leveraging my experience in speaking Spanish, playing piano, and ice skating, I have been able to improve (though not yet master) my French, score-reading, and surfing.

My initial fear was grounded in a certain truth — that young brains are receptive and have higher crystallized intelligence than older ones. But, at the end of the day, I am smarter, more experienced, and more capable at 30 than I was at 25, and it's because I can enjoy the benefits accrued in my younger, more quick-witted years while leveraging the experience and wisdom that have colored my life in the intervening years.

I'm not old (yet) — just older. But if I were old…would that be so bad?