Old people were young pretty recently. Ask them what it felt like. They’ll tell you it went fast.

Age is not a different species. The person with grey hair was sixteen in what feels to them like a short while ago, with the same nerves about being liked, and the distance between you is mostly cosmetic. Most of them are waiting to be asked. Nobody brings it up because we assume old age is the whole story.

Ask one of them what being your age felt like, not what they did but how it felt. Listen for the part about speed, since almost everybody says the same thing. It is less a warning than an invitation to notice this year while you are inside it.