Try not to "old"

I need to title these things AFTER I see what I write!

I knew nothing about Athens. That was about 5 years ago. I’ve been here a handful of times and I mostly go to coffee shops. I walk all over and speak only a few words of Greek. Still! The Greek language is impossible for me, but I trudge on. As I get older, things like learning a new language keep me curious and engaged with this world. I’ll be having another birthday next month so it always gets me thinking about how to avoid being “old” old.

My approach for the last ten years or so is to say “yes” to as many things that I can. For example, hiking. I haven’t went on a day hike ever. I like the woods and all, just never got around to investing a whole day to marching around the woods. Last spring my friend asked me if I wanted to go up the Hudson and climb rocks and hike the woods after we got to the top. I really didn’t want to do that, mostly because I just don’t even think about hiking at all. I said “yes” and two days later I was on a 7 am Hudson line train out of Penn Station.. I know it’s now the Patrick Moynahan station but it’s still a shit station. We got off at the stop which was just a patch of dirt along a highway the train seemed to arbitrarily stop at about 40 minutes out of the city. I was ill prepared but I was with good friends and had a blast!

Back to Greece. One day the GF asks me if I want to go to Greece. Yes. Do you want to learn Greek so you can have a conversation with our new Greek friends? Yes. Can you speak Greek after studying it (admittedly half-assed) for 5 years? No. Are you still trying? Yes! I feel fulfilled for trying something hard and failing as opposed to not even thinking to try something out of my comfort zone.