Doing something new is just a fact of life when you’re young because everything is new.
The sum of everything new is experience. We gain experience as we go along and try new things. We can try it again after that, but it isn’t “new” anymore.
Remember the thrill of riding a bike for the first time? Travelling to another province? Starting a new grade in school?
Sadly, some of us get into a rut at some point once we leave school and start working for a living. Those thrilling new experiences are fewer and farther between.
When was the last time you tried something new? The older you get, the more “inconvenient” it becomes to stretch that brain or that imagination or that hamstring and try something new. Why? Because we don’t have to. Because we know everything and do everything that we want to do.
I must get bored easily, because I can’t stand the thought of it. It may take some planning, and it may happen only every other year, but this old dog still has a new trick or two left.
Years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to quilt before I turned 50. So I did, with the help of the ladies in the local quilters guild and the assistance of YouTube. After that, I found a like-minded fellow musician and dusted off the recorder that I hadn’t played for 30-some years.
Now I’m wondering what new thing I might try in 2015. I’m pretty sure I’m past sky-diving. Falling from great heights have never appealed to me. I’ve often wanted to visit the Yukon, but that’s not the sort of lasting experience I’m looking for these days.
I’m more in the market for increasing my skills so that I can make a difference for myself and perhaps my community.
Experience changes the things that mean the most to us, and the New Year is a good time to look back and take stock. Decide how we want to proceed and what we need to do it.
This world keeps changing and you either change with it, or you get left behind.
So, what changes are you going to welcome in 2015?
Wendy Coomber is editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal
