I believe that my mind has been compromised.

Not in any way you could possibly imagine, mind you.

I have done some thinking, and came to the conclusion that I am getting old. I find it more and more difficult to pick up new things—it takes a hell of a lot longer. Maybe this is what neuroplasticity is… it’s the fact that when you’re younger, it feels like the days are longer, meaning you have high neuroplasticity, but when you get older, the days are shorter, meaning it has diminished. Your capability to learn new items has decreased literally because it seems as though you have no time to do it.

Is it that, or is it perhaps that I spend a great deal more time doing entertainment based activities? Just over the last few days, for instance, I’ve watched the first two seasons of Big Bang Theory. In addition, I’ve played 5 hours of Skyrim, a single player RPG game, and also finished half a book and started another. Perhaps it is the fact that I spend 40-50 of my most productive hours during the week working and spending time enriching shareholders.

No, not really. I’ve noticed that older people have a tendency to keep to what they know, and not learn new things. Is this a defect of that individual person’s personality, or is it something prevalent in most seniors as they approach their golden years? I then realized that this has already occurred within me.

For instance, I find myself having ignored the opportunity of learning several programming languages, including Python and Ruby. Why do I need to know these languages? They are just refinements on already existing technologies. I could keep using the languages I’ve already learned, albeit with a bit more effort to accomplish the same tasks. But the fact remains that I know these languages, and that I need not know another similar. I find this also in newer technologies like Twitter and Second Life. I find it in the fact that I have no smart phone, when I remain one of the last not to have one simply because I refuse to pay the extra money. Is this intelligent, or is this simply stubbornness? A child of today has a smart phone and sees it as normal. He sees it as something that is inherently a design of the world, and he doesn’t understand how someone could or perhaps more importantly would live without it.

What caused that spark and drive within my young self to learn and experience new things and develop the mind?

I may someday discover the answer or I may never know, but for me it does not matter. I am what I am, and I am no longer a child. I must rediscover myself again, and realize that I will not be the person tomorrow that I am today. To desire new ways to learn and succeed in finding them is now my life’s goal.