by one of my favourites : José Micard Teixeira :

Sometimes, I look in the mirror and I realize I'm no longer that 20 year old kid who used to play music in bars, drove around slowly in his Kawazaki in the city streets to be seen and admired, loved to seduce german and dutch women who used to camp in the camping park, and who had stopped studying for the french classes in the Institut Français to cover for his mother, who was suffering from a long term illness. I'm no longer that kid who was a father for the first time at the age of 24, who dreaded responsibilities, but who always kept a smile on his face. I'm also no longer that adult who decided to become a company manager and when he was 30 years old became general manager, who twelve years later gave up all of that to follow a dream, who lost everything and went broke, who didn't give up and always believed in himself and in what he wanted to accomplish. Today, I look in the mirror and I notice a few grey hairs, wrinkles and moles that weren't there before, details that make me think with a smile across my face about my fifty-four years of age and about all the things and stories I've lived. However, when I look myself in the eye, deep down, I recognize the same look of always, that look that saw me throughout all my ages and that today smiles with no fear of what's to come. I became a loner that stopped fearing loneliness. I'm happy in my own happiness.