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(And no, you don't have to copy and paste. I'm just modifying this a little as I copy and paste it because it's an albe-painful reminder that those of us under 35 are getting older, too).
To everyone whom has come of age and is only aging more and more every day:
We are going through the next stage of our lives. We are at ages at which we see more and more wrinkles, gray hair, and extra pounds. We think about the fact that quite a few of us were just even 25 seemingly yesterday, and just slightly younger than that just as if it were only a few days before that. Now we're either closer to 35 or further away from 35 on the older side of it than we ever thought that we could be in just a short amount of time, and the 25-and-younger crowd will be just like us one day (😢. You do get that old before you know it, and the worst part is getting old as you get older.).
What we once brought to the table with whatever youth and zest for life we had will become either wisdom, experience, and good hearts that older people are expected to have or the haughtiness, stubbornness, and miserliness of the proverbial old fool—"Better is a poor, wise youth than a foolish old king." We've earned each of our gray hairs for either what we've endured or made others endure, too.
Don't think that aging necessarily means being like a classic or like a fine wine, either. Our exteriors may not be what they once were, and any looks that we do retain will either mean nothing or be like the proverbial "gold ring in a pig's snout" if we deliberately forego having (let alone increasing) spirit, courage and strength in entering and exiting the coming chapters of our lives with grace and dignity; and may we never pride ourselves in what we've endured and accomplished—may we be humbled by and learn from it.
May God "[t]each us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom"—especially since we don't know if we have the rest of today, let alone tomorrow and any days thereafter.
Even if you decide to not copy, paste, and modify this with your age and a picture of you, look at the recent-enough picture that I have posted of my currently-28-years-old self and apply Marley's words to Scrooge to how you yourself are aging:
"Look to me no more. Look, that you may remember what has passed."
