Growing older had been so different from what I had imagined. I thought things would get boring because that's what I thought about the topics that older people spoke about. Now I am talking about those exactl same things and it's quite fun and interesting. You point of view completely changes. When I heard older people talk about the past I used to judge them thinking they are living in the past and not enjoying the present. There is such joy in reliving and reminiscing the past - nostalgia is such a beautiful feeling - about activities, tastes, experience from when we grew up. There's is no way to experience how beautiful it is until you have actually lived and grown older. And it has got nothing to do with how much you enjoy your present life too. It only adds to it. In some ways, you enjoy the experiences you have now even more a decade later when you think back about it. Not "even more", but quite differently. So when you are living your life now, you are not only living for the joy of the present but also giving content for your future self to reminisce about.
I was talking to a close friend of mine who is a decade younger (another thing I never thought I would do cos I had firmly believed that it's only appropriate to hang out with people your age lol but the fun part is, you need both cos different parts of you shine with different groups of people. Anyway..) about re-reading a book and re-watching a movie and enjoying it quite a bit. She was like "oh I would never do it, I hate the idea of it because it's not fun since I already know the story" That statement was a literal throwback to my voice when I was 25. I was like "I was the same the exact same way but.." and paused cos I was cracking up when I realized the irony of it - oh how much did I judge that statement coming from older people - "There's no way I would change how I feel. I know me so well" Yes you knew you when u were that age. But what you didn't comprehend was that you will change. There is no stopping change and it is a great thing. Cos only that change has made you appreciate things you never would've. So it's like a whole new life even though things around have not changed, cos your perspectives have, you see the same things differently. So going back to the opinion about re-reading/watching, I was the same the exact same way but what I didn't realize then was how much you forgot over the span of a decade. And the joy of being able to re-enjoy things you loved is oh so special!!
"The older you get, the wiser you become" was a saying I didn't quite understand before. N thought it was lame lol but now I'm realizing how true it is. You give less fucks about little/meaningless things you obsessed about when you were younger. You see patterns more clearly making you less idealistic - you understand how things work n make decisions accordingly. I used to think of this as a loss in enthusiasm but now I see it more as a quality of practicality. You empathize better and become more accepting of people's characters because you see all different kinds of quirks n realize that everyone single one has a good and bad and if you rejected people because of some bad, you would have no one left - also that bad is bad only from your perspective. Which also means you suddenly got the ability to appreciate and enjoy the good in people even more.
"I watched you grow up. I used to spend so much time with you when you were little" - I heard that so much when I was a child. I used to be like so what. What's the big deal about watching someone else grow up. Why don't you focus on your own life lol that was true even through my twenties when I met my niece and spent time with her. I met my niece when she was turning 3 years old. I still remember accidentally burning her lashes when I was trying to get her to blow a candle. So many things she did n said were so cute and I was obsessed about her but every time I mentioned it, my cousin, her mom never acknowledged it and instead spoke about how much cuter when she was younger, a baby. I used to judge her because I thought she was stuck in the past and not being able to appreciate the current her. When I recently watched my niece give a brilliant and funny thank you speech at her arangetram, I yet again realized quite the opposite. That speech was more beautiful to me than it would have been to a stranger precisely because I couldn't help myself from thinking how the baby girl who couldn't pronounce UPS properly has grown up to be such a big smart one, how the baby girl who already had so many expressions on her face could put up a performance with even more expressions. It's quite special to watch children grow up n turn into adults - haven't experienced the later part yet that would happen after a couple more decades I guess.