Spend any amount of time on the internet or social media and you’ll notice a lot of people out there still buying into this “fountain of youth” idea that’s been around since Alex the Great. The myth has changed forms and hands over the centuries, from tantalizing “rivers of paradise” to magical solutions that grant wishes of staying forever young, and I don’t doubt that, if faced with the theory, you and I would be quick to deny something so outlandish. And yet, there seems to be a part of that old folklore that has some staying power. I’d be willing to bet there are a decent number of us more curious than we care to admit about how to keep youth on our side. And more than a few of us still on that treasure hunt, looking for the way back to our younger selves.
But if you ask me, culture’s answer to “staying young” is just one big marketing stunt. It’s selling you this idea to buy into—literally—and says here are all the antiaging products and regimens you need to protect your vitality. (Also, can we just acknowledge how backwards the word antiaging is?)
And then, there’s the answer to how to get your youth back. Ah, yes, the grand prize that’s dangled in the faces of old suckers like me: the golden age of retirement.
When you’re no longer on the grind, when the kids are all grown up, then you have the time to do all the things and dreams your working years robbed of you. The golden years. Really? Whoever came up with it must’ve been in advertising, not arthritis. Sure, it sounds near perfect—a shimmering season of life when we finally get back our freedom-flinging years. But reality says to ask around or look within your own family tree, and written everywhere are stories of bad knees, early bedtimes, and a sense of humor about how “retirement” feels more like the start of a slow decline than a victory lap.
I’m only in my 50s, but I don’t wake up the way I did at 30 or even 40. In those years, I’d jump out of bed ready to take on the world. Now, it’s more of a slow roll, a few extra cracks and pops before I’m upright. I still rise before the sun to feed animals and toss hay, but nowadays it takes a little more coffee, a little more grace. I don’t mind that one bit, but I will say that what is alluring to me about the whole “forever young” idea is less about avoiding stiff joints or gray hair and more about what no amount of antiaging cream can give you: time.
When you’re young, it feels like you have limitless time (and energy) to build and create and learn all the things you’re destined to. You see nothing but runway to become the person you’re meant to be. It’s all fuel and encouragement to live every day at full throttle. But the opposite is actually what scares the heck out of me: the temptation to let the back half of life lull me into dormancy. To be too set in my ways. To wait life out instead of living it out loud.
Illustration by Lida Ziruffo
There’s no changing the fact that we’re all getting older. Time is flying by, just like we’ve all been warned. So, if youth isn’t something we can actually hold onto or get back, then the question becomes: What is worth chasing?
The answer’s right there in the question. Chase. The act of following, pursuing, or running after someone or something quickly. Maybe it’s a personality thing, but that definition resonates. Call it rose-colored glasses, but I can’t shake the drive to live life daringly. Anything less than 100 percent just feels too small to me.
I’d argue this perspective was built into my DNA—passed down to me from my dad and to him from my grandad., J.B. I spent a lot of weekends out on J.B.’s big ole East Texas ranch when I was a kid. A cowboy in every sense of the word, J.B. taught me a million things. But watching the way he wrangled life, even in his old age, is what has stayed with me most.
Perhaps the greatest outward picture of J.B.’s inward mentality was his hands. They were calloused and wrinkled from years of working the land, and yet, they were living proof that you’re never too old to explore, never “too experienced” to gain something from becoming a beginner again. Age didn’t hold him back, and even as a kid, I knew that’s how I wanted to grow old too.
“... I refuse to believe what the world is trying to sell: that youth is the real treasure or that we can afford to wait to really live.”
It’s undeniable that no matter how well I take care of myself (which, for the record, I do believe is valuable), a day will come when my body can’t stay in stride with my childlike curiosity. Or maybe it’ll be the reverse—my body stays as good-looking as ever but my mind can’t quite keep pace. It’d be easy to get discouraged by this, and I don’t want to make light of the real hardships people have faced when it comes to getting older, but I refuse to believe what the world is trying to sell: that youth is the real treasure or that we can afford to wait to really live.
Because a life lived well is better than a young life, and living curiously today is how we stay curious tomorrow. If I train my mind and heart to do those things today, then surely my future self will thank me. So for me, that means staying a learner, a beginner. If I’m inspired by an idea, or a question, or a dream, I want to start tugging those threads now, creaky knees and all. Even if the time comes when I can’t fix a flat, ride a tractor, or even walk up the stairs, I pray 80-year-old Chip Gaines is still kickin’ in the ways that matter most.
The fountain of youth is a scam, so don’t take the bait. But I’ll bet there’s something deep stirring within you that’s the truest thing you know—be it faith, a dream, a pillar of who you are. Maybe it’s love, or community, or your own personal philosophy. What if that’s what you spent your days, these days, chasing? Not some unattainable promise, but something actually worth growing old for.
This story has been adapted from the summer 2026 issue of Magnolia Journal. To see it in print, pick up your copy here or on a newsstand near you. Then, start a subscription for inspiration year-round.
