This summer, I bought my first boat. It was a deeply humbling experience - I was quite happy not to take out a row of boat motors when trying to get out of the harbor for the first time. I didn't make it out of the harbor the first time I tried - I got to a corner, decided I wasn't quite ready to make that corner at mid-tide, and returned to try again at high tide. I'm reasonably competent now in mild weather, but I was scared those first few times out in a way I haven't been scared in a long time.
I am really appreciative of having found something that takes me back to those formative experiences of my late teens and early twenties - new adventures that shape the soul. Getting out on the ocean on a regular basis is renewing as well.
I watched my parents stop living when my brother and I graduated high school and left home. They stopped going out as much, they stopped trying new things, and in general they grew more fearful of the world as it changed around them. I vowed to never give in like this, and now that I'm at the age where I saw them stop living, I always check in and make sure I'm learning new things, and taking appropriate new risks.
I'll never be 20 again, and I don't want to be. But I'll be a 40 year old who's living each day with a similar outlook and enthusiasm as I had in my 20's.