Meeting my nephew in his college town, Riverside, California, is something I always look forward to.

I have watched this gentleman grow from a toddler crawling around the living room, to the ever-reliable face waiting for me at Kolkata airport during my quarterly visits to my parents, to now a full-fledged young man navigating college with a remarkably good head on his young shoulders. It is one of those privileges of getting older that almost makes getting older worth it.

Over lunch, we had one more of those conversations that make you forget there is food on the table. We talked about some of the lessons and revelations he is going through in life. Many of them felt familiar. I had wandered through the same territory in my early twenties, although I probably stumbled into more rocks along the way.

Then I caught a faint hint of shared family DNA.

He told me that this summer, while staying on campus for a job, he woke up one morning with the uncomfortable realization that he was wasting too much of his day. Instead of immediately downloading three productivity apps and buying a new notebook, he spent a couple of days just… thinking.

“Me and my thoughts,” is how he described it.

A perfectly respectable activity for a philosopher. Mildly concerning behavior for someone in college.

Those conversations with himself led to a decision. He wanted to build better habits. So now, whenever he gets the chance, he heads to the library and devours books. Non-fiction only, he added.

I tried not to look too smug. This uncle approved.

As I drove back to the hotel, I caught myself wishing I could go back to his age. Imagine having all that time ahead of me to learn new things.

Then, somewhere between Riverside and the hotel, I had my own little “me and my thoughts” moment.

“Hang on… I’m not dead yet.”

I may not have the same energy I had at twenty. My knees have opinions now. My memory occasionally files things under “good luck finding that later.” Learning may take me longer than it once did.

So what?

Perhaps that is exactly what makes it worthwhile. Learning, perhaps, has never been about having no obstacles. It is precisely about overcoming them.

So I think it is time to start learning something new again. Now I just need to make a list.

But first…

Another adventure beckons.