When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Had an European Youth trainers meeting earlier this week, and there was a story being told about a guy who had been working as an IT technician. Deep in his heart, he felt he'd really like to work on the social sphere instead, work with children and youth for example. Although he felt very much stuck with what he was doing, he was really afraid and not comfortable to change the job, the workfield, the already settled way of life...He had later said that he thought the others would think he has gone nuts if he had by any means expressed what he really wanted to do. So he took a year off and went to work on the European Voluntary Service - on the field he actually had wanted to work on. And a year later a person that had found his passion returned home.

Why is it so that young, restless, courageous are the words that seem to go together and on the other hand the characteristics like old/mature, rational, stable and other similar ones seem to have a good fit?

It seems to be generally so that the older we get, the less risks we take, the less we experiment, and we ain't that courageous any longer. Part of it has surely got to do with the fact that by getting older, we at some point become responsible for not only ourselves, but also for our partners/boyfriends/husbands/children etc. Thus one can't really risk with many things anymore. Makes sense.

On the other hand, I think people are often way too afraid "to do things for the first time", to break the routine, the settled in comfort, and stability in life.

"Sometimes, people use age as a convenient excuse.
'I'm too old to start something new', or, 'I couldn't learn that at my age.'
Other people, though, go on to achieve their greatest accomplishments in life in later years."

Catherine Pulsifer

How does it work then? Being "young and courageous" forever :))