You are 23 years old, full of energy and expectations. You just finished the university, you are looking for a fascinating job with lot of challenge, you want to build something exceptional, unique, something big that you will be very proud of.

You found a job, not as exciting as you thought at the first time, but good beginning, people are nice to you, they have a lot of fun.

You are 25, you meet with a nice girl in a New Year’s Eve party, she is really pretty and you have a lot of common topics, you are never bored speaking with her. You are travelling to a Caribbean island in the summer, 10 days full of fun, and lot of adventures.

You are 28, the big day arrived, you are married. Your friends and family are around you. You feel this is the end of an old chapter, but a beginning of a new.

You are 30, Emma has born, she is so cute, and you never felt such a happiness before. You start worrying about a lot of things connected to her, isn’t the water too warm, aren’t she hungry, does she have any pain. After the first months you stop worrying and you enjoy the time when you are home and play with her.

You are 42, your children does not really like to go to school, but they never stop to tell the stories, what happened to them. You are now a real family.

You are 50, both of your children are going to the university. Time passing so fast. You have enough money to live happily with your wife, things have changed.

You are 58, your father died last year, you were depressed, you wished to hug him every time when you meet with him, you wished you could spend more time together, you wished to tell him “I love you”.

You are talking a lot with Sophia (your wife) recently, you share your ideas, you tell her how important she is. You often go to the mountains to your weekend house, you love hearing the crickets in the summer nights, you love sitting next to the fire. When your children visiting to you, it is always about work and life, but you realized the quality of the life is not about money, job, or parties, quality is how you spend the time with others. Now you never miss to say you are proved and you love them.

You read a lot of books, you could not understand why you have no time to read such a good things, you always slipped over them. Small things making you everyday life very funny, your tomatoes are growing and looks really strong and fresh. You love to walk in the woods, they gave shade in the warm days.

You are 80, you had a wonderful life, but you do not understand why the world struggling around you, why is so much sorrow, if there is so much good things, why people are worrying about money, politics, when you know only those things matter, that makes the moments valuable. A hug, saying “thank you”, a touch, a kiss. You wish everybody discover these things, because you have no time tell them.

But do you remember? You 23, your friends are tweeting and browsing facebook posts, you have time to tell this message to the others.

Joel Stafford

My profession is online marketing and development (10+ years experience), check my latest mobile app called Upcoming or my Chrome extensions for ChatGPT. But my real passion is reading books both fiction and non-fiction. I have several favorite authors like James Redfield or Daniel Keyes. If I read a book I always want to find the best part of it, every book has its unique value.