Aging for Eternity

Adaolisa Mba ‘27

as undergraduates, we’re enjoying the peak years of our youth. we (for the most part) are not worrying about hair loss, wrinkles, deteriorating joints, and all the other ailments that relentlessly chase us as we age. 

however, it seems as though our carefree youths are quickly being phased out, replaced by a nagging that, because we’re approaching that “repulsive” word and world of aging, we need to start now to make sure we still look young at thirty (because, obviously, we become obsolete once we exit our twenties). enter botox and facelifts, the syringes and the procedures meant to make us look like we drank from a fictional fountain of youth. 

naturally, as humans, we’re scared of death and what comes after—will we get to enter those pearly gates or will we go the other way? what does eternity look like? feel like? as an extension of that fear, we come to reject every reminder of our mortality, hence aging’s role as the villain of our time. secular society tells us that if we fix this sag, smooth that line, cover that spot, touch that up, or buy x, y, and z, we won’t have to face the visible proof that our eternity is not found in this fleeting life. 

yet, we all know somewhere deep inside that the real eternity that awaits us, the one after death, is the one we should and do care more about. so, instead of succumbing to the temptation to erase age, any evidence of our march nearer to that true and glorious eternity, let us embrace the signs and roadmarkers that tell us we are one step closer to our home. 

Contributed by Adaolisa Mba. Adaolisa is a junior at Harvard College studying Psychology.