As you become vintage, people want to put you behind glass. In a room. Label you. Make you something to admire from a distance but not engage with. Something that was but isn’t anymore.

Too many of us believe them. We step back. We make ourselves smaller. We accept the shelf.

But that’s not vintage.

Vintage is the surf coming in—cool, fresh, enlivening as it rushes over your feet and up your legs. It’s active. It’s alive. It moves with force and intention. It doesn’t ask permission to make an impact.

You’re not a relic. You’re not something preserved in amber, slowly fading. You’re not sitting on the shore watching. You’re dynamic. You’re engaged. You’re creating, building, contributing—right now, today.

The world sees gray hair or a few wrinkles and wants to shuffle you aside. Give you a nice chair. Pat you on the head. Tell you how much you used to matter. But you know better.

Vintage means you’ve been tested. Refined. You’ve survived storms that would’ve sunk others. You’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. You’ve earned your edge.

Vintage isn’t about looking back. It’s about bringing everything you’ve learned forward—into this moment, this project, this conversation.

When people say “vintage,” they think static. Unchanging. Done.

You are none of those things.

You’re the wave that keeps coming. The energy that doesn’t quit. The force that reminds everyone watching: experience isn’t decline. It’s power.

So the next time someone tries to make you sound quaint or irrelevant, remember: you’re not a museum piece.

You’re the ocean. And the ocean doesn’t retire.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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