The Unexpected Joy of Aging
I’ve hit 30 now so I guess I’m officially old lol! But, I never thought I’d find joy in aging. I felt like I had to celebrate this milestone this year and I’m not even a birthday person! I wanted to do a lowkey birthday dinner with all the friends that I’ve met in Charlotte. I don’t think I would have made it through these four years in Charlotte without them! 🫶🏼 I also wanted to do something new so, my brother and I went indoor skydiving with iFLY. The instructors and the whole experience were really great! <3
When you have FA, aging becomes bittersweet because the symptoms that start off invisible becomes more and more visible as you age. That is why I never appreciated my birthday and was never big on celebrating it. (I still had some iconic birthdays though, thanks to my Mom!) I’ve also seen people lose their lives to FA, which is one of the reasons growing older feels more like a privilege than anything else.
Gratitude is such a powerful weapon. I have become grateful for the increasing patches of gray hair, the ever-growing back pains and the constant fatigue that follows every task. (And btw, I blame my dad for my grays 😂) They aren’t signs that we are withering - they’re proof of everything we’ve endured and a reminder that there’s still more to experience. Aging is universal, and to me it never felt like an ending because really, it’s a wiser beginning. Every year hands us a few more stories, a few more lessons, a few more “ohhh, that’s why he said that” moments.
Life has a way of shattering our naïve nature and replacing it with something deeper. Every experience — especially the ones that catch us off guard — reshapes us. It sands down the soft, untested edges and leaves behind perspective, clarity, and a quieter kind of strength. Maybe that’s why they call it “young and dumb” when we were younger. As a reminder that wisdom is something we earn by living, stumbling, learning, and trying again.
As we get older, reflection becomes a tool for seeing our experiences through a fresher, wiser lens. It helps us understand who we were when we were younger and reveals the patterns we couldn’t see back then. Reflection gives us answers — not to judge our past selves, but to guide our future ones to do better next time.
Aging isn’t a decline. It’s an upgrade. We age because we are still becoming the person we need to be ✨