U.S. Senator and American astronaut John Glenn's return trip to outer space Thursday can serve as a reminder to us all. That reminder is that no matter how old we get, we can still reach the stars.

Glenn is 77 and returned to outer space Thursday 36 years after his first trip.

Glenn last went into space before Nixon's resignation, before the end of the Vietnam War and before many high school students and college students today were born.

In our trendy, pop-culture, fast food, channel-surfing times, we sometimes forget that we are all aging. There is no fountain of youth where we can remain forever young, even though cosmetic companies would have you believe otherwise. The phrase, "It won't happen to me!" doesn't apply here.

The human body ages, for all people. I'll get old, you'll get old, and that one person you had a crush on back in high school will get old. It's the way it works.

But, as Glenn's trip reminded us, we can grow old gracefully and still have an exciting time.

Many people have this notion that when you reach a certain age, all you do is join the local bridge club and gossip about your neighbors. People don't believe you can do anything else. The idea that an older person can enter a marathon, drive a racecar or go into outer space seems foreign to many.

But not everyone in this world is willing to just lie down and die when they get to be 80, 90 or 100 years old. They know they are still alive and they live day by day in ways that many younger people can envy. They're like the people on the Coca-Cola commercials who, when they drink Coke, become the life of the party. Only, those active elderly people don't drink Coke to be active, they just are energetic because they are excited about life. They refuse to let old age stop them. They battle those who tell them to slow down, and why not? Unless they're severely disabled or dead, they can fulfill their dreams.

When I talked to some eighth- graders previously, they were impressed about Glenn's mission, especially at age 77. The four students agreed that age should not be a prevention to doing what one wants to do, to living to new heights and fulfilling one's dreams. Those young people basically said that age doesn't matter. And they were more right than some adults have ever been.

I can't imagine being a senior citizen - it's not a concept I'm familiar with. But when I'm 77, I don't want to be a senior citizen whose idea of fun is sitting on the recliner in front of the television set watching reruns of the "Andy Griffith Show." That's not what I'm about.

I want to be taking swing dance lessons, or going bowling or golfing, or traveling. And when it's late at night and I'm at home, I'll either pick up a good book or write one.

I just don't want to find myself complaining about "kids nowadays," instead of living. That would be pretty pathetic to me.

Of course, what one person finds boring, another finds exciting.

Carpe diem is an old, Latin cliche. It means, "seize the day," and it still applies today as it did way back when. Seize the day when you're in elementary school. Seize the day when you want to ask that one special person out. Seize the day when you want to propose marriage. Seize the day, fly high and take no prisoners.

We will have our ups and our downs, our good days and our bad, and our joy and our sadness. But those down days should not keep us from looking at the ultimate goal: living life and enjoying life. When we no longer can do that, we are then "old," and you don't have to be 100 to be "old." You can be 20 and be "old" if you don't live life to its fullest.

Glenn proved the old adage that you are only as old as you feel. He also proved that you were never too old to achieve your dreams.

That should be inspiring to anyone at any age. And if ever a person needs a reminder about living life to its fullest, all they need to do is look up at the sky at night and think about John Glenn's trip to the stars at the age of 77. [[In-content Ad]]