We’ve all heard the saying “age is but a number,” and we see it right before our eyes here at Dartmouth. Though we are mostly all in our early 20s, sometimes it feels as if we are running out of time. Deadline after deadline, term after term, we’re always looking one step ahead, and our time here flies right past us. We worry about our summer plans in winter, what classes we are going to take next term while we’re in the middle of this term and where we’re going to be employed when we’re still students. In the face of all this planning, graduation comes along right before we know it, and we’re left wondering what the heck happened to the past four years.
For this week’s issue, we talked to couples with large age gaps, graduate students, local business owners and a professor who specializes in dementia to learn more about the significance of age and how it affects our day-to-day lives — if it should at all.
Aging is a weird thing. When we were kids, in classic “13 Going on 30” fashion, all we wanted to do was grow up. But now that we’re older, all we want is for time to slow down. It helps to remind ourselves, though, that age is really just a number. You can be 21 with your whole life figured out or 45 with not a clue as to what to do. But for now, we still have time, and we should make the most of that. The future will come in due time — be in the moment while you still can.
