Your Prime Is Not Youth, Money, or Status. It Is Something More Human

Your Prime Is Not Youth, Money, or Status. It Is Something More Human People admired different stages of my life. They only wanted one of them back. When I was in middle school and high school, adults would look at me with the usual nostalgia. Ah, youth. Ah, energy. Ah, no responsibilities. But none of them wanted to become a 14-year-old again. They liked watching it from a distance. University was the same. More freedom, more friends, late nights, low stakes. People smiled at it. Nobody wanted to trade places. Mid-career was the same again. This is the stage people usually call prime. You know a lot. You produce a lot. You can handle complexity. Your judgment is better, your network is better, your output is better. Older people respected it. Some even admired it. Still, they did not want my life. Then I had a child. The first year does not count much for this argument. A baby is important, exhausting, beautiful, terrifying. But socially, a baby is still a bit of a blob. You love the…