My grandson made a comment that made me laugh...and then think. We were at a playground and his sister said: "Where are all the old people?" To which he replied: "They are either walking or in school."

Then I realized how accurate his statement is. I mean just read some of the posts here on RallyPoint, and you notice right away how many folks read, study, or learn new things every day. If we can still move around, we also walk.
Luckily I live near a University. They have programs for Seniors that meet just once a month, or sometimes once a week. Some are just one day.
No grades. No tests. Just the sheer joy of learning.
This last Semester I took a wonderful class that met every two weeks for two months ...all about the Renaissance Artists from Venice. Where one of the things I learned is that Venice had the first "Ghetto". And "Ghetto" is an Italian word for a Copper forge. Looking at some of the Art Work and Architecture that those geniuses produced on a giant screen was a wonderful way to spend an hour and half. In that particular Class, over half of the folks taking it had been to Venus itself. And their stories were lovely too. (Nine Veterans in the Class too!)

I took another Class that met once a month to read books that had "AI" as the theme. The first book to have an AI theme? Mary Shelly's: "Frankenstein." How cool is that?
The other Class I took - and am still taking- meets once a month all year long. In that Class they dissect in great detail, Non-Fiction books. It usually takes about four Classes to finish one book. The one we are working now is called: "Bitch, On the Female of the Species," by Lucy Cook. The language is provocative (by design) but the Biology is simply amazing. Did you know, for example, that there are no "Male" or "Female" Hormones? They all start as cholesterol- and then the pathway decides what Hormones will develop. Or that Monogamy is extremely rare in the Natural World. Some of the weird mating or sexual adaptations mentioned in the book bordered on Bizarre.

I met one guy who was a Historian for the US Army. He taught Classes to Unit Historians so they could document a Unit's History. Every Division has a Unit Historian. I did not know that. And man, the stories he told me over a donut and a cup of coffee.


So yeah, one of the ways to keep yourself growing in old age, is to keep learning. Make your brain work a little, just like your long walks do for your body, that desire to learn will keep you ...well, not young, but youthful!