I turned 25 recently. This is a post based on some reflections I’ve had over the past month and a half that I’ve been jotting down.
One of my friends asked me to write a post based on turning 25 and I wasn’t quite sure what to put in it.
I’ve had some time off and what they say about an idle mind is incredibly true.
I’ve been beset with existential questions and put my determinism that has held me in good stead for the past year on hold for a while now.
What does turning a year older really mean?
I’ve never been quite sure to be honest.
When I was a kid, growing a year older came with definite benefits, when I turned 3, I started going to school, when I turned 11, I expected to go to Hogwarts ( which did not happen, much to my disappointment ), when I turned 18, I got my driving license, and now I’ve turned 25, now what?
What does turning 25 come with as benefits? I have no idea, maybe age is just a number, maybe it isn’t, what do I know?
As a kid, I learnt that according to Hindu Dharma, there are 4 stages of life, with an assumption that one lives till the age of 100.
The first stage is one of learning, till the age of 25, the next stage is that of someone productive towards society and family, till the age of 50, till 75, is the stage of retired life and from then till 100, the life of renouncement.
I’m not sure how this applies in the modern day, I don’t think it does and yet here we are, me discussing it and watching several people go from stage 1 to stage 2.
I think as societies we tend to forget the past and live in them at the same time, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and soul searching over the past year, must be evident to people who actually do read this blog. ( Why do you read this blog by the way? :)
What could be a combination of the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon and confirmation bias has led me to identify in my readings and my thoughts the recurrent theme that the most important things that happen are the most improbable things that happen that we may not be able to predict and probably will not happen.
This recurrent theme, which is in some ways my conclusion and a part of my way of life now, puts me at odds with birthdays, or turning a year older.
However, it doesn’t deter me from recognising such occasion.
The interesting things about occasions that are surely coming is the notion that these are ones where we get something having given so much the rest of the year.
Maybe this is one way to answer my previous question regarding the benefits of turning 25.
Maybe the point at which we stop getting definite benefits for turning a year older is meant to be a hint to us to start giving definite benefits to the world at large for letting you stick around for another year
Lets go back to the question.
What does turning a year older really mean?
There are several parts to that question, the most important part is the element of time, second, the speed of flow.
A year has passed, definitively and measurably.
However, how fast has it passed?
I’ve written about this in the past and I think the past year has been several times longer than a year for me, in much the same, but, for very different reasons than the year before was as well.
So, in some ways, I feel like I’m not just turning 25, I’m much older, perceptually, 25 temporally and much younger, experientially.
Maybe turning a year older means nothing, maybe it’s just another checkpoint like all other checkpoints, I think its upto us really.
I think its upto us whether we wake up looking forward to one specific day or every single day.
Maybe turning a year older is a reminder to get back to work more than anything else or maybe I’m just a workaholic. What do I know.
25 years is considered a silver jubilee, an anniversary of some sort.
Why silver?
Silver is less valuable than gold, and so on.
But, is one anniversary less valuable than the other.
What makes 25 years less important than 50 years?
Is longevity the goal? Is silver not good enough?
I think I sound like a cynic at this point, but, I assure you I’m not.
I’m not pretending to understand all of this better than anyone else out there, I’m just admitting I don’t.
Truth be told, there probably isn’t much to understand either.
I’ll take my silver now, please.
Thank you for reading
Sainath