Do you feel you’re as old as you birth certificate alleges?
Do you find you have to stop and think about your age?
I’ve caught myself doing this many times. Fortunately, I haven’t been too obvious about it.
Years ago when I was reporting I covered the Provincial Court, as such I heard people’s ages all the time. Say an accused was 40. I’d think: oh my, that’s old. Then I’d remind myself that I was 40 last year.
People in their 40s still seem old to me sometimes even as I can match or better their ages.
Now in my late 40s I can joke about a 40 year old being “just a kid” but deep down, it still seems old.
I’m 48. I don’t feel it, but I have no idea what any given age should feel like.
Chronology has little to do with age. I think of myself as somewhere in my 30s. Still prime in my mind even though the mirror puts the lie to it.
Physically I’m in better shape than I was 10 years go, and leaps and bounds beyond the lazy, if skinny, slob I was in my 20s.
I feel a certainly maturity, I suppose, but it has nothing to do with age. That’s simple inner growth.
But I sure can’t get my mind around the idea of being in my late 40s.
I like it.
I just don’t get it.
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10 comments:
I have the same problem. Who's that old lady in the mirror? Surely not me!
I think for me, having no kids plays into it a little. I think if I'd watched them grow up and go off to college, I might feel a bit more as though a lot of years had passed since I was young myself. But I still live very similarly to the way I always have. I don't feel all that different, either, except for going to bed earlier.
Great topic!
I hear that, Crabby, 9:30 p.m. is awfully late these days.
Had my 57th birthday just the other day, Leah, and if it was anyone else, that would make them an old, old woman!
But I don't feel much different to how I felt in my thirties except that I'm a lot more laid back about most things - oh, and I go to bed earlier!
Hey Dawn, I have to agree. In many ways I'm a lot more easygoing now.
You're right. Everyone else is old.
I like your blog! This is a little off topic, but I heard a discussion on talk radio regarding at what age do you can no longer say that someone was young when they died. It sounds creepy the way I described it, but it was really interesting.
Hello Anonymous,
Thanks for the compliment. I suppose anyone younger than you who dies is young when they die.
Just imagine, when we all thought our parents were being silly and embarrassing us, they were just acting the age they felt! Now we know! I've not felt my age since I was in my twenties and the further I get from there the harder it is to accept that actual number. On the other hand I've been told I have an old soul and I do relate to older people much better than to younger people - go figure. (I am definitely a night owl though!)
Yes, Rebecca, now we know.
It's almost a shame we don't have any kids of our own to embarrass.
It seems to me that sometime in one's 30s, a person either starts to either behave like how they think a "grownup" should act, or they don't. The choice you make determines how quickly you seem to age, which isn't necessarily a reflection of the date on your driver's license.
We all mature and grow up. But becoming a grownup, and hence "old," is a choice.
You make a good point, Bunnygirl.
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