Never Too Late

I saw a video some days ago. I don't know how long the video has been on the internet for, but it gave me a good, hearty laugh. I had not laughed so hard in a while. I laughed so much, my ribs started to hurt. And the thing is that I still go back to the video a few times a day...just so I can laugh. I will try to describe what I saw in it but before I do, let us go together down memory lane. Gosh, that just made me feel old.

Generation X and Generation Z folks, this might not make sense to you but back then, we did not "roll up" or "roll down" car windows, what we did was "wind up" and "wind down" car windows. That's because there was no electrical power to the window then. To roll the windows of a car, you had to do it with your own power. All we had was a hand crank. So to raise or lower the car window, we had to manually turn the crank in circles around its axis. Sometimes they were easy to turn, sometimes they were really, really hard. And if the ergonomic knob at the end of it had broken off, it became even more difficult to wind up or wind down. Worst still, if the hand crank had removed or the gear connecting the crank to the mechanism in the door had worn out, you most likely would not be able to raise or lower that window. Now, imagine you had the need to quickly raise the window to prevent being beaten by a sudden downpour.

Anyway, that explanation leads me back to the video. A guy had asked a young boy (likely his son, nephew or younger relative) to roll down the window of the vehicle they were in. The boy, naturally, was looking for the window switch that he had been accustomed to...till the crank was pointed out to him. Even then, he had no clue what to do with the crank...he was completely lost and confused.

It took me back to the days when, if you had to change the TV channel, you had to get up from your seat, walk to the TV and push a button on the TV to change the channel. We did not have remote controls.

Then, it was only a few privileged homes that had telephones and those telephones were land lines that you could not move around. For those of us not privileged to have phones in our house then, receiving calls was always an appointment we marked on the calendar. Especially if the call was coming from "the abroad" or somewhere really important. And many times, we had to sit for (sometimes) hours by the phone, at the friendly neighbor's sitting room, waiting for the phone to ring.

If a 50-year old person who had been in jail half his life was released back into the society today, you will agree with me that such person will find it extremely tough to live the life that we all are currently living. That is because life as we live it now is not what we knew 25 years ago. It had changed tremendously...yet to some of us, the memories of 25 years ago (that was 1998) are still very fresh in our heads.

Thinking about the past few years made me realise how much the world had changed, is changing and will keep changing. There is need for us all to stay relevant. Staying relevant means to continually change also. Continuous adaptation, continuous adjustment, continuous improvement is the only way to stay in touch with how much the world is zooming along.

It does not take a whole lot to stay in touch. A new skill, a new competency, a fresh network, a fresh piece of information and knowledge is all we need. Whatever it is, do not remain at the same point.

The world will never remain where you left it. It has always moved. It will always move. All you need to do it blink...and it has already left you generations behind. Some people are already masters of this, some of us are struggling to get a hang of it. The year is just starting - it is a good point to begin.

Like a popular saying goes: "it is never too late to start something new”.