I started reading Harry Potter when I was about twelve years old and I have not gotten over that book series since.

Apparently, that was a lie.

I remember when I was 16 (and wow I feel old just saying that), I was obsessed with Harry Potter and all the young adult fiction books like Hunger Games and Percy Jackson. I reread Percy Jackson a bunch of times and now I can't stand it.

I have not reread Hunger Games but I'm pretty sure my feelings about it has changed. Same for Harry Potter.

Turning twenty does not actually mean anything significant because time is arbitrary and all but each year in college truly changed me. I feel that the way I approach things today versus how I did even a year ago has changed, so slowly that I have not noticed until I did.

I look at Rick Riordan works which are getting more inclusive and diverse and thus, I want to be able to read them but I just can't make myself do it.

I look at the mess that is J.K. Rowling and I do not want to even read her books again, even if I could.

Like everything else, the way we read changes with time and age. The books I find engrossing now still have the power to make the world around me vanish. But I can't inhabit them as I did with my childhood favorites.

The books I want to read now are not Young Adult at all. They are more of a snippet of life kind of books; they are more related to what I want to pursue in the future; they are more related to the realities of living. I think now that I have experienced fantasy and action books, I am ready to go on to try different genres that did not excite me when I was 16 but they might now.

Growing older does not mean anything significant (either good or bad) but it is what you make of those experiences you now have that shines.

This makes me wonder about those folks who were not voracious readers in their childhood and who did not read the majority of the classics and pretty much any book they could get their hands on. How is their reading (or lack of it) evolved as they gained more experiences? Do they skip the stage of mystery and Young Adult fiction and directly reach where I am now, do they have a mix of both, or do they start from the beginning?

With climate change keeping us on our toes (yes, I know its actually a very serious issue but humor helps), the future is very, very uncertain. I could tell you that I found a bunch of evidence that aging actually does not suck but we really don't know how the next 30 years is going to unfold.

The uncertainty is driving us to be more impulsive and the concept of YOLO is more relevant than ever. Growing old has always been something of a scary change that none of us are looking forward to because we are afraid of who we will become and what the future has for us.

I am scared for our future but the way I'm coping with that fear is being more accepting and open-minded to the individual I am turning into.

Turning 20 means I can never read Harry Potter again but that does not bother me.

There are other books waiting to be devoured and I am more than willing to move on.