Darling Letters: The Gift of Getting Older

We are bringing “Darling Letters” from your inbox to the blog! We love the art of letter writing and believe it helps build authentic community. Our editors and contributors have thoughtfully written encouraging letters to cut through the busyness and speak straight to your heart.

I made a promise to myself in my early 20s—I would embrace getting older. That was easy when gray hair was simply just a notion, an idea to mull over. However, holding fast to this promise has gotten a little bit harder as gray hairs have started to appear in my bangs at 29. A stressful event planning job in downtown L.A. left me with a few but very visible gray strands.

Society has subconsciously taught us that there’s something wrong with getting older. That gray hair is a thing to hide. Wrinkles are a thing to begrudge. That we are meant to always look like the teenage or 20-something versions of ourselves or to fit into that pair of jeans.

There is beauty in every season. I don’t want to forget this as I get older. There is beauty in youth, innocence and naivety. There is also beauty in maturity, wisdom and age. These two realities are not mutually exclusive, but instead, they coexist.

There is beauty in every season. I don’t want to forget this as I get older.

I don’t want to believe the lie that getting older is something to be ashamed of and neither should you. We must learn to fiercely love and embrace the younger versions of ourselves from our 20s—her mistakes, her innocence and her naivety.

We should also learn to welcome with open arms the older, more wise versions of ourselves in our 40s, 50s, 60s and onward—her life experience, her confidence, her beautiful womanhood and maturity. Instead of deprecating the woman in the mirror, let’s learn to protect, value and celebrate her at every age.