How Old Do You Think I Am?

Inquiring siskins want to know.

For me the real question is how old do I think I am?
I’ve heard it said, by someone probably famous, that you’re only as old as you feel.
A good, sensible saying. If you feel old and lousy then you’ll act it and you’ll become it. I’m not about to go that route.
However, I was thinking about it last night as I was cleaning up after the evening meal: I don’t know how old I feel.
I have no idea what my current age, 49 ½, is supposed to feel like so a compare and contrast exercise is out of the question.
I’ve had this problem for years. I remember back when I was covering Provincial Court and would hear an accused’s was 40.

“Oooh, she’s old,” I’d think. Then I’d remember I was 41.

If I concentrate I would guess I feel somewhere in my 30s. Until I squat down for something out of a low cupboard and have to think, very seriously, about the process involved in standing back up.
Other than that, I have to consciously remember my age. Another factor is I’m not sure that I look like I’m closing in on 50. I don’t look anywhere near that age to me.
It seems to me I have felt the age I was at other ages. I think I got stuck somewhere and decided it was a good place to stay.
Logically, if I don’t look it and don’t feel it, then all I have left is chronology. It’ll have to do.

Pine Siskin photo courtesy my husband, Mike Mayrl.

How Old Are You?

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.