I just turned 60.
Over six years ago, I wrote an article called “Time Writes in Your Face,” a Chinese expression suggesting the idea that our faces are not just biological accidents, but a representation of our choices, our thoughts, and how we have lived. I wrote about a 61-year-old woman who tried to reverse her age by surgically erasing her history to look 16 again. I wondered then about the marks life leaves on us.
Now, I find myself on the other side of that reflection.
This writing hasn’t just happened on paper—it has been etched through choices, habits, relationships, courage, fear, and love. Looking back, I can honestly say I have done some bad writing. There were chapters filled with insecurity and lines written in the ink of stubbornness or confusion. There were times of poor posture, both of the spine and the spirit.
But I have no desire to surgically remove my history. You cannot erase an action once it is taken.
The lines on my face today are action marks. They hold the laughter of students and the quiet persistence of discipline. They hold the posture of the heart that my mentors helped me correct.
At 60, I understand what I could not at 40: we cannot control time, but we hold the pen. Every thought we rehearse and every habit we strengthen is a stroke of that pen.
We do not write in isolation. Our choices ripple outward. Families write into children. Teachers write into students. Leaders write into nations. History keeps a careful record of every stroke of integrity and every mark of greed. Nothing is truly erased.
Youth is temporary. Character is cumulative. We cannot hold onto the past, but we can nurture and shape our character.
Whether we are an individual tending to our own spirit, or a leader shaping the fate of many, we must remember that time is watching. Tomorrow, next year, in ten years—Time always writes and never misses a beat.
The truth is no one wants to look bad.
The question is no longer, “How do I look?”
The question is, “What am I writing now?”