As young adults, we humans tend to be self-confident. We have life by the tail and understand how it works. In concert, we make many assumptions: how our career will unfold, whom we will marry, where we will live and when we will die, among many others. Of course, we are blinded by our innocence and often come to find that those assumptions, inspired by freedom and optimism, are often not accurate.
As we mature (a nice word for age), we develop a more nuanced view of life, molded by personal experience and the testimony of others. We are less likely to make assumptions and we undertake change with caution. The wisdom that comes with age guides both the careful choices that we make and the advice that we offer to the young.
Yet, we admire the spontaneity of youth and miss the freedom of those early years. But, as the lyrics of a popular song suggest, "we wish we didn't know now what we didn't know then." Life's lessons are not always easy to accept and discarding the assumptions of our youth is a task that is never quite complete.
