Youth doesn’t go on forever

I got such a shock one day while driving. I was approaching an intersection near my house and didn’t recognise any of the usual familiarities. I looked around and didn’t know where I was, even though I was in my own neighbourhood and had driven this same route many times before. At that point I realised I needed to get checked out. Living alone, I needed to know whether or not this was the start of dementia or something. So I was assessed in December and they said I had mild cognitive impairment. But I don’t know what the diagnosis means, or how significant it is. Is it important? Very important? Or not very important? I don’t know. I was assessed again about a year later and I was looking forward to that appointment, because I really needed to know if I was on a downhill slide. So I was assessed and I had actually improved since the first time, which was such a relief. But all of this has been a reminder for me that youth doesn’t go on forever, and at some point you have to confront some of the limitations of old age head on.