Trains of Time

Youth is wasted on the young and wisdom, on the old. Those are bold, sweeping, statements that might offend us in our youth. We carry on as though we will be that one person who continues our present journey indefinitely.

Young adulthood boasts strong physical ability and mental acuity.

We can accomplish a great deal in a shorter amount of time as our younger selves.

For many, it is also a time for fast cars, serial dating and overspending. Decades can pass before we realize that empty pockets and living on the edge is a high price to pay for reckless behavior. Our younger selves don’t realize what “reckless” actually looks like. Such clarity comes with age as we are forced to examine our past decisions and uncareful choices.

Some battle scars of irresponsibility will never completely heal. One irony of life is that the passing of time allows us to clearly see how what we did affects not only us, but the world around us.

Time pays no attention as it forces us through the aging process. The trains of time will continue to barrel down the tracks with no regard for how humans keep pace. We are mere passengers – each given a boarding ticket at birth. We have no control over the seat we are assigned, nor the speed the locomotive of time travels. Our seat is up front at first but over time, it gets closer to the back where people exit.

We are all passengers, along for the ride.

Our younger selves peer out the window as a tapestry of opportunity approaches. We may not realize our own potential. If we’re not careful, those opportunities pass right by, one after another.

Further down the tracks, we notice wrinkles appearing. We start to understand why grandma often complained about her aches and pains. At some point, we notice that wisdom now warms the seat beside us.

With it comes the realization of what we could have been had we only made better decisions in our younger years. In what can feel like a cruel, calculated plan of a deaf train conductor, opportunities we had manifest as unrealized dreams and blurs of regret. Older individuals learn the hard way that the trains of time stop for no one.

To younger individuals who do not wish to pay the high cost of recklessness later in life: LISTEN.

Your older self might seem like someone you will never meet. In reality, time is moving you to that older self at a rate of speed you do not realize right now. All those years will pass by in what will later seem like the blink of an eye.

You might look back, but you won’t remember your young age with absolute clarity. Things will look much different from the perspective of an older you. Failing to do those things that will set you up for the best potential outcome later can cause deep regret. How many older people fear how they will make it through the last season of their lives? It is not uncommon today.

Waiting for that perfect moment to start working on your dreams means you are waiting for a time that will never come.

Opportunity will not wait for you to get older or wiser.

Someday, you will look back and have that feeling that is so familiar to those of us who have arrived as members of an older generation. It can feel like somehow, you were suddenly transported from a younger you to the older version. Between your younger self and the older version, you will have many opportunities to grow and change. Let it happen. Don’t stay stuck.

You will not be the one traveler who beats the odds of life’s process. One day you are young and vital and capable. And quickly, you find yourself standing in the line at the back of the train waiting to exit. At some point, we all hand over our ticket and deboard. There are no exceptions.

Before that day comes, appreciate life more. Be more grateful. Be kind to one another and gentle with other living things. Appreciate the beauty in nature. Adopt a better definition of success, health and wealth than what failing systems and societies have taught you. You decide what your life can look like and pursue your dreams with everything you have. Don’t imagine that it won’t matter someday. It will matter, and that day is coming faster than you think.

Make integrity the foundation of your life. Realize that your actions create ripples that go out and affect more than just you. Against what you might see others doing, maintain compassion for the weak, the indefensible and those who have fallen on hard times. Ripple positivity. Realize you will not reach perfection riding the trains of time, but you can do your best. Do better tomorrow than you did today.

When the day comes that 50, 60 or 70 years old is staring you in the face, you can say that you did everything you could to create a good life.

Hindsight is a curious thing. It can be a blessing and a curse. Aging individuals can struggle to focus on how to create a better life while at the same time, beating ourselves up for not doing it sooner.

Regardless of your situation or age, if you are still capable of peeking out the window from your seat, then you are capable of seeing that opportunities are still there. Those of us in older generations remember a time when this present technology did not exist. We have the unique opportunity to share our life lessons with others in a way that can benefit future generations of people.

You are here, and it is now. However old you are and whatever seat you presently occupy, make the best of it. Your older self will thank you.