I still get nervous when it's my turn to speak at a meeting. When I organize and lead meetings, I still feel like the novice upstart. I still assume there are older people who know better, and I wonder if they will take me seriously.

Then I realize I am 43 years old, and I recall what I thought of 43-year olds when I was 12. I thought they had it all figured out. They were my parents, my parents' friends, the leaders in the community, etc. Sometimes I thought they had it figured out WRONG, but it never occurred to me that those "old" people felt the same feelings--when they were chairing a town committee or standing up to speak in front of a couple hundred people--that I still feel. It is a surreal experience to consider what I would have thought of myself.

We are all still kids in many ways. We don't have it figured out. When we start something new, we are just as nervous as the first time we had to stand up in front of the class. When I talk to people about topics that I have a lot of knowledge about...the reality is, I am still hoping people don't figure out I'm a phony or something. I don't think it ever goes away.

But the excitement of learning doesn't go away either. We are forever young in that when confronted by new experiences, we are like kids again, learning by experience, making mistakes, and figuring out enough to get through today's challenge. As long as the challenges never end, we keep repeating the cycle, and while there is some discomfort in those feelings, there is also the thrill of learning something new and discovering that we can.

I'm too young to write advice on how not to get old, but I believe finding those moments of uncertainty in our lives--and embracing them, not fearing them--is how we stay young.