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New Year’s Eve is the ultimate reminder that the clock never stops. As we prepare to flip the calendar, it’s natural to look back at the year, and the decades, gone by. We often focus on what we want to change in the future, but rarely do we consider which part of the journey we’d actually like to keep.
Youth has many advantages—health, strength, vigor, and vitality. Everything feels possible, and you’re certain you know what’s right and wrong in the world. Sure, there are downsides: the struggle to forge a career, juggling money problems, and the exasperation with managers who don’t see what you see. But overall, being young is intoxicating.
Being older has its own rewards. You’re typically settled into a career, equipped with the life experience to weather the setbacks that come with being human. Money causes less anxiety, and somewhere along the way, you’ve figured out what actually makes you happy.
Here’s a thought experiment for the final hours of the year. If you could look back through your lifetime and hit pause at any age, freezing yourself there indefinitely—what age would you choose? Why that particular moment?
For me, it would be right now at 58. I have financial stability, a mediocre sprinkling of wisdom, and a high dose of contentment, all while my health still holds up. It took decades of work to reach this equilibrium, and I’m in no rush to move past it.
So, as we head into 2026, what about you? When would you hit pause?
A dear, departed friend often said something along the lines of this: “The good old days are happening right now!”
Not sure I would pause anything. There have been multitudes of really great moments that have created enduring memories, but that’s what they are – – – memories to savor and reflect upon. I’m good with the here-and-now.
It might have been New Year’s Eve, or just a weekend night on the rooftop of a friend’s house. Around 1980. Balmy weather, cool drinks, a small group of like minded souls, a guitar and song book, a clear dark sky that we scanned for satellites and space debris. That’s where I’d pause.
Mid-20s, a public service job I was proud to have, songs and conversation, enough of everything that matters and almost none of life’s complications or troubles that can disrupt or push off happiness and contentment.
Where I lived then, no television, no phones, not much of anything. And yet, among the best times of my life.
Still, these many decades later, and despite plenty of challenges and difficulties and hiccups along the way, I’ve had a wonderful life so far. And my next read is Judith Viorst’s “Making the Best of What’s Left” on the “final fifth” of our lives. I’m excited for what lies ahead.
That’s such a great mental image of life in the 70s and 80’s
I was just thinking the same thing