The Devil Knows More for Being Old Than for Being the Devil. (With age comes wisdom.)

Some never learned from books,

nor from classroom walls.

They learned by living.

In intense conversations

that didn’t always end well.

In choices that came with a price.

In loves they knew wouldn’t last,

yet dared to live fully anyway.

Because something inside them shouted loudly:

life is one,

and you must live it fiercely.

They dared to say yes,

even when they knew

the path was unpredictable.

And by thirty,

they had lived more than many by eighty.

They had tasted, felt, lost, enjoyed,

and also risked.

And what comes after

is no longer experience.

It’s wisdom.

Because they made so many mistakes

they stopped counting.

Yet still, they didn’t lose themselves.

On the contrary:

there they found what no one teaches you.

The cunning born from pain.

The patience born from failure.

And that inner voice

that no longer needs to ask everything,

because it learned to listen

to what burns deep in the heart.

They weren’t always wise.

They were stubborn, intense,

and above all, curious.

But still,

they chose to dare.

Because there’s no university

more complete than life itself.

And when time passes,

they won’t be wise because they’re old.

They’ll be wise because they lived so much,

that even the devil asks for their advice.