Here’s your ONE drop:
I’m turning 40 soon, spiraling about it like a completely rational human being. So I went looking for research to validate my existential dread.
Expected ammunition for my midlife crisis. Got the opposite.
Older people are measurably happier than younger people. Not despite knowing their time is limited, because of it (wait, what?).
When you’re 25, death feels theoretical, so you collect everything.
You meet everyone, try everything, say yes to everything. Maybe this random person will matter someday. Maybe this experience will pay off later.
When you’re 75, you know the timer is real, so you focus on meaning.
You prune your circle to the ones who matter.
You stop feeding petty fires.
You give yourself permission to love what you love and drop the rest.
Psychologists call it “time horizon theory”, the brain literally shifts from accumulate to curate.
I call it finally running out of time to waste on bullshit.
Shame it takes half a century to get there.
// Ann