It’s a Friday night and while most people your age are out partying and making memories [some of which they would like to forget the following morning], you’re busy curling up with a good book from your ever increasing “to-read” list. While others are busy spritzing their favorite perfumes and donning their highest heels, you’re inhaling the dried ink of a freshly turned page, adrift in an alternate world in the shoes of the protagonist.

Your only regret the following morning? Falling asleep with your glasses on.

Coffee Meets Bagel? No thanks, I’ll take an order of rose tinted glasses with a side of prince charming…To-Go!

Prose uplifts the soul while good conversations indulge it. You think Rumi is the greatest poet to have ever lived and sometimes [well...often] wonder if you were born in the wrong era. You live between the dichotomy of wisdom and naivety, feeling the broad spectrum of human emotions a little too much and ruminating a little too often.

While books give you the ability to time travel, the prospect of receiving handwritten notes excites you. Ever the romantic and an ardent believer in soulmates, you have no desire to swipe left or right. You view life through rose tinted glasses, wanting only to believe and see the best in everyone. You savor home cooked meals, tune into the sound of rain, gaze every so often at the hues of the sky and have a strong sense of self, one that emanates from the very depths of your soul. One half of you resides in the real world, burning the midnight oil to chase your dreams, while the other half always has its head in the clouds, floating in the midst of lofty ideals.

Step Up. Show Up.

You’re too busy showing up for yourself to explain why you [sometimes] act older than your age. You don’t relate to being “foolish and young”, the phrase is as alien as the actions of one; you’re secretly an older soul trapped in a younger body. Often touted as “wise beyond your years”, you’re more cautious than you are wise.

Rebel without a cause?

The concept of a curfew is largely unfamiliar, for you were never given one to break one. The only streak of rebellion you ever displayed was refusing to try and “fit-in”, for you never truly felt out of your skin to ever have a desire to do so. Home, for you, is where the heart is so you’re never quite out of place, for you understand that there is space for you in this world, to love and learn – to blossom and grow. You recognize that you are exactly where you’re meant to be, here and now.

You recognize that the ability to say no is self-love and that respect always trumps love. You have no trouble starting conversations yet you enjoy your company as much as you enjoy that of another. Each breath is a miracle and life itself is beauty personified. You sometimes wonder if you’re the exotic concoction of wisdom and youth but you secretly wish you were brave enough to make your own mistakes rather than learn from the ones of those around you.

You feel deeply and hurt easily, yet you’re highly conscientious and have an acute awareness of all that you do, calibrating your life somewhere between heart and brain. You recognize that the best things in life aren’t things, rather, moments that become memories at a later time. You recognize that time, words and the current moment are transient yet precious, for none can be recovered once spent. Your integrity is your crowning glory and your people your kingdom.

Above all, you recognize that being an old soul doesn’t warrant that you’re a caterpillar waiting to morph into a butterfly. You’re already one, catching air time and spreading your wings as you fly.