As old as you feel.

I was chatting to one of my new work colleagues during the week about general stuff and she started asking questions about my life.  Things I had done, jobs I had worked in, places I have lived and so forth.  It was a brief conversation yet quite revealing.  Not just because I disclosed more of myself to this new person, but because I essentially heard what I was saying, as if someone else was doing the talking.  Not only that, but they were talking about someone else's life.  A life that I wanted to have lived.  It was enlightening to think that this was me I was talking out aloud about.  The colleague echoed my own quickly manifesting private thoughts by stating with a tone of surprise and astonishment that I have been living a great life.  The real knock-me-down moment though was yet to follow.  She continued in her admiration of past my past exploits by adding "and you are still so young!".  Me, who lately has been spending more time than I can justify, thinking how I am beyond the magical prime years.  That somewhere I passed the point of no return, where all the adventure dissipates to be superceded by routine, career, future wealth, old age and then death. So considering this older person’s point of view, I suddenly felt like the world was mine once again.  That doors are all still open to a swarm of opportunities and things yet to accomplish.  I could do anything, be anyone, and go anywhere.  And you know what?  That's exactly what I am going to do.