Title: Does age matter?
Written by: Ivan Lim (2G 2023) – Awarded Silver
I recently came across an online news article about a missing Singaporean climber, Mr
Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya, who summited Mount Everest on May 19 2023. He was 39 years
old. He left Singapore on 1 April with the aim of summiting Mount Everest, followed by Mount
Lhotse in a single expedition. Had he been successful, he would have been one of the few in
Southeast Asia and the first Singaporean Indian to do so. Mr Shrinivas had previously
successively scaled mountains of higher altitudes compared to Mount Everest, including
Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world located in the Nepalese Himalayas.
Unfortunately, he told his wife via satellite phone that he had come down with high-altitude
cerebral oedema and was unlikely to make it down Mount Everest. There was no news from him
afterwards. Despite their best efforts, the search and rescue team was unable to locate Mr
Shrinivas. I was absolutely taken aback by this tragic news. Was he too old? Was he unfit
because he was 39? Perhaps he should have attempted to scale at a younger age?
This incident triggered my interest to find if there was a right age to succeed in conquering
Mount Everest. I did some research and was amazed to discover that Yuichiro Miura, a
Japanese, is the oldest person in the world to climb to the summit of Mount Everest at the age
of 80! This octogenarian was also the oldest man to climb any mountain over 8,000 metres!
That’s not all that I found. The youngest person to conquer Mount Everest was Jordan Romero
from the United States who was just 13 years old! Shortly after, Jordan went on to summit the
Vinson Massif at age 15, making him the youngest climber in the world to complete the Seven
Summits! This made me think: If 39 years old is too ‘old’ an age to succeed as a climber, then is
13 years old too young?
This also reminds me of Giorgia Borg, a Maltese 10-year-old singer, who made “Britain’s Got
Talent” history as the youngest act to receive the golden buzzer. Giorgia impressed the judges
with her vocal powerhouse performance because she was merely a typical young girl to perform
an original selection entitled ‘’Ten”. When asked about why she chose this original song, she
explained that the song resonated with her because it reflected how young people felt dismissed
when their views were not heard just because they were young. Even at 10 years old, a person
has views and opinions. Clearly, age is secondary. We can flourish and succeed regardless of
our age and age is never, and should never be a limiting factor. There is no right age for
success and achievement.
Through the course of writing this piece, I was presented with more age-defying individuals.
Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC started his venture after the age of 60. Sister Madonna
Buder, a late-life athlete, began jogging at 48 and holds the current world record for the oldest
woman to ever finish an Ironman Triathlon at age 82. It seems that there is most certainly no
timeline, as well as ‘age breakthrough’ for any achievements. There is no particular milestone
you have to reach by age 35, or a breakthrough you can only obtain at age 45. While all the
people I researched were of different ages, they all had something in common- grit and desire.
Fuel and passion. At this point, I strongly believe that as long as an individual is on the right
track, with dedication and direction, he/she may even get ahead of the individuals who started a
decade before him/her.
But of course, the skeptics may say that young people lack experience and maturity. However,
each person is unique and equipped with their own set of experiences, viewpoints, strengths
and weaknesses. For that reason, some people may reach particular milestones or develop
certain talents at a younger age than others, depending on where they are in life. Therefore,
instead of using age as the main criterion to determine if we should embark on something we
desire, we should embrace age diversity. Anybody can scale any mountain at age 10, 30, 60 or
even 100!
In conclusion, age should not determine whether or not we will succeed and where we will go in
life. Instead, willpower and desire should be what determines you as a person in life. There is
certainly no right age to succeed.
Let’s be a Jordan Romero.
Let’s be a Giorgia Borg.
Let’s be a Yuichiro Muira.
MJR World of Words 