The moment my father would change the channel to ABP News, I would put up my most irritated face on display. The barrage of cruelties around the world and political complicacies would ruin my blissful period of watching Naruto (for you boring people out there, it is ANIME, not an effing cartoon). I always wanted to be a ninja – climb walls, throw kunai, hide in plain sight. I would mostly dwell in my imaginary world and rule my imaginary ninja clan as their leader. By the time I had turned fourteen, I had traded that dream for becoming a doctor. It was, I guess, a side effect of my father’s profession and his peculiar habit of oversharing horrendous details of patient inflicted with all kinds of diseases. I had first gotten used to it and then started predicting what disease he would talk about. His righteous nature towards medical profession had somehow rubbed off on me.
Fast forward to now, while I am neither throwing shuriken nor bandaging wounds, I still wake up with that same sense of curiosity. Except now, my questions sound a little more like, “What led those ninjas into the path of life they chose and how they navigated through the difficulties?” or “Are we too much dependent on medicine nowadays that we ignore natural remedies for a better life?”
A friend of mine, let’s call him Bob, once told me, “I’m too old to learn anything new. My brain’s a rusted engine at this point.” Bob’s 23. Not 60. Twenty. Three.
So, I handed him a Rubik’s cube. “Here,” I said. “Learn this.”
It took a lot of groaning, a few YouTube tutorials, and a week of trying, but guess what? He solved it. The smile on his face wasn’t just about conquering the cube; it was about realizing his brain was far from a rusted engine. It was more like an old car that just needed the right kind of fuel.
If you’re sitting there thinking, I don’t have the time, or What’s the point now? — think about Bob. Lifelong learning isn’t about mastering every skill. It’s about reminding yourself that you CAN.
We all say that we are too busy. We’re busy with work, family, the endless cycle of laundry. But here’s a little secret: learning doesn’t have to mean signing up for night school or reading 400-page philosophy books (though if you do, hats off to you). It could mean listening to a podcast during your morning commute. Or reading a Wikipedia rabbit hole for 15 minutes before bed. Did you know ‘Sharks have been around for over 400 million years, while the first trees appeared only about 350 million years ago.’?
Anyone who stops learning is old,
whether at twenty or eighty.
– Mark Twain
Kids have this magical habit of asking “WHY?” a thousand times a day. “Why is the sky blue?” “Why can’t dogs talk?” “Why do I have to give exam?”
Somewhere along the way, we stop asking why. Maybe it’s because we’re too busy pretending to know everything, or maybe we’re scared of looking foolish. But here’s the thing: the world is so much bigger than what we already know. Sandeep Maheshwari explained it best when he described how with increase in age, we transform our hands from receiving the rain drops to using them to cover our head from getting wet.
Here’s a small dare: pick something you’ve always wanted to learn. It doesn’t matter how small or silly it seems. Always wanted to try origami? Go fold a crane. Wondered about the history of jazz? Cue up Louis Armstrong on Spotify. Never learned to whistle? (Okay, that one might take a while.)
The point is, let yourself be a beginner again. Laugh at your mistakes. Celebrate the tiny victories.
At its heart, lifelong learning isn’t about impressing others or adding skills to your resume. It’s about staying alive in the truest sense. It’s about feeding your curiosity, expanding your world, and keeping that spark alive. So, what will you learn next? Let me know in the comments!
