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The Unexpected Perk of Living an Exceptionally Long Life

Why an early exit will cost you

Victoria Z.
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
4 min readJan 13, 2025

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Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash

I want to be honest with you. I want to live a long life.

The life expectancy in the U.S. is 79.25 years. As a lifetime high achiever, I don’t consider anything below 90 acceptable.

Then I was informed by several well-researched books that aging can be postponed, perhaps forever. With imminent scientific breakthroughs, the first person to live 150 years is already among us.

Inspired, I have updated my goal to 120 years.

Surprisingly, many friends don’t share my enthusiasm. Old age is no fun. It is plagued with pain and diseases. Why do you want to extend such a miserable existence?

Sorry, perhaps I haven’t made myself clear. When I say “a long life,” I don’t mean one spent in a wheelchair. Instead, I’m talking about a healthy life where you can hike up mountains.

You see, the beauty of “curing” aging, the focus of longevity research, is that it can prevent dreaded diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, which are nothing but byproducts of aging.

By now you are probably half convinced. But another question immediately pops up: suppose you are right, what will you do with all the time?

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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

Victoria Z.
Victoria Z.

Written by Victoria Z.

Books, movie, travel, politics, technology, and Silicon Valley life.

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