What are your hopes for your 70-year-old self?
Ruben:
That I’ll feel young and playful still. That my curiosity and enjoyment of exploring survives. I want to still be kickboxing, doing yoga eating both tasty salads as well as deep fried food when I want to. That I’m flexible, agile and adaptive to life in the 2060’s. By then I also hope that Airpods are embedded in our ears so I won’t have to keep putting them in and out :) And that Spotify is finally able to accurately find my kinda jams to the tee so I won’t have to listen to each Radar Release trying to find that one golden track out of a thousand. Oh finally that Togather is still online ofcourse so people can be scanning twigs on Mars for us on Earth to use :)
Marie-Claire:
My first job after graduating from Central Saint Martins was to teach painting and drawing in a day centre for retirees. Richard was one of my students and left a lasting impression on me as an example of ageing well. At 72, wearing his trademark Spice Girls branded wristwatch he cycled from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
I met him when he was 74 and set on learning to draw. Alongside being fine company and a thoroughly nice person, he was willing to be a beginner again and try every new technique and material I offered him. He gifted me my own Spice Girls watch when I left for a new job, thanked me and wished me luck. If I am anything like Richard in my seventies and beyond, then I’m doing it right!
Dilruba:
Hoping that I can still bend down to look closely at the little things on the ground, while feeling light as a cloud. My maternal ancestry has a long history of living long (100-113 years old). I'd like 70 year old me to be a version of myself that still fills sketchbooks, can track a song she likes from a mile and is capable of making damn tasty food while enjoying the company of others. As I write this I'm wearing these socks that are grandma made (not mine, even though my great-grandmother made some excellent knitted socks too) and it gives me good vibes and warmth thinking about an aging Dilruba.
