Hema Kundargi shares about why it’s important to keep dreaming and evolving.
I am often asked, “Don’t you just want to slow down and enjoy the quiet?” And every time, I smile — because honestly, I don’t think my heart knows how to stop dreaming. Aging, I have come to believe, is not the closing of a chapter. It is the turning of a page to the most freely written one yet — the season where passion finally gets to lead and where the dreams you quietly shelved for years are gently handed back and whispered: now it’s your turn.
Sixteen years ago, my children flew the nest — and instead of the silence I had feared, I heard something stir within me. I went back to school, returning to the classroom after nearly three decades to earn my Master’s in Nutrition and Dietetics, and remembered what it felt like to truly love learning.
Life then opened a door to a corporate wellness clinic where food, health and human connection spoke the same beautiful language. COVID came next, as it did for all of us, and in the stillness, it gifted me, I found a paintbrush, a canvas and something I hadn’t known I needed — a quiet, sacred space where my next dream was already waiting.
My dreams are still evolving, and I have no idea what the universe has waiting around the next corner — and honestly, I have learned to love that. As I circle around the sun one more time, I look ahead with a full heart, a quiet excitement and one simple question: What will I learn next?
Whatever season of life you find yourself in, keep dreaming, keep stumbling and keep growing. Age is not a finish line; it is an invitation to become more fully and freely yourself. With a Perspective, I’m Hema Kundargi.
Hema Kundargi lives in Cupertino. As an empty nester she has reinvented herself as a Registered Dietitian, Health and Wellness Coach , Culinary Medicine specialist, an Emerging artist and a proud Grandma in chief.