The Elders Are Growing Too😭

I remember being in secondary school. There was an uncle we used to see often at the park- someone familiar, almost fixed in my memory. Yesterday, I saw him again. And he looked… different. Older. Changed.

I said to my brother in the car, “Uncle looks so different now.”

And in that moment, something clicked.

I remembered the version of him I knew years ago- the way he looked then, the way he carried himself. It made me realize something simple: as we grow, the elders are growing too.

We sometimes think of adulthood as arrival. Like there’s a point where you finally become an adult, and that’s it. No more learning. No more becoming. Just maintenance. But life doesn’t work that way.

There is no manual for being a human being.

No handbook that says, “Once you hit 50, you’re done evolving.”

Growth doesn’t stop because you’re older. It doesn’t pause because you now carry responsibility, authority, or experience. If anything, it continues- quietly, visibly, sometimes uncomfortably.

Our elders are still navigating life. Still learning new versions of themselves. Still adjusting to change, loss, joy, and time. They are aging, yes-but they are also becoming.

We often talk about growth as something for the young. Something you do before life “settles.” But growth is not a phase. It’s a process. And it doesn’t discriminate by age.

Seeing that uncle again reminded me that time is moving for all of us. That the people we once saw as fixed figures(my parents tooooo, oh my goodness) are also changing, aging, learning, and living through seasons we may not fully see or understand.

And maybe recognizing that softens us a little.

Maybe it teaches us patience.

Maybe it reminds us to extend grace- upwards, not just downwards.

Because we are all growing.

Every single day.

The elders too.